Today is World Water Day, the annual international celebration of the Earth’s most precious life element and the key to virtually all measures of human well-being and prosperity. As the UN wraps up its main events in Cape Town, South Africa, it’s worth noting that this is a traditional occasion for recognizing achievements in the field – particularly those that help humanity better manage its precious H2O resources.
Perhaps the most significant (and venerable) honor is The Stockholm Water Prize, announced earlier today in Sweden. A newer program is theUN “Water for Life” Best Practices Awards, handed out this morning in Zaragoza, Spain.
Stephen Carpenter / Credit: Jeff Miller
American environmentalist Stephen R. Carpenter, a Professor of Zoology and Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, will receive the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize for his research on managing lake ecosystems.
The Stockholm Water Prize is a global award founded in 1991 and presented annually by my former colleagues at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) to an individual, organisation or institution for outstanding water-related activities. H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, who is the patron of the Prize, will formally present Professor Carpenter with the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize at a Royal Award Ceremony in Stockholm City Hall on August 25 during the 2011 World Water Week in Stockholm.
The UN 2011 ‘Water for Life’ Best Practices Awards’ have gone to:
- ‘Las Pinas-Zapote River System Rehabilitation Programme’, in the Philippines for its “outstanding contribution towards improving the living environment
and its demonstrable and tangible impact on improving people’s quality of life within a metropolitan river basin” - The project ‘A Participatory and Learning Based Approach to Raising Awareness on Water and Sanitation’ for Durban, eThekwini Municipality in South Africa, for “its innovative approach to communication and awareness raising in poor areas and its outstanding contribution to addressing key challenges related to water and sanitation in an urban area.”
Even though much of North America still takes its freshwater for granted, it’s clear that the rest of the world knows better. There’s only so much to go around for daily life, agriculture, energy, industry, recreation, and especially the delicate ecological balance we hold with other species on our planet. Whether you believe in “anthropogenic” climate change or not, it’s clear that the planetary climate is changing…and that the effects manifest most dramatically through water.
These awards highlight working solutions to an ever complex matrix of problems…and they raise awareness for an urgent global challenge.
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