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dam-l Kader Asmal Wins 2000 Stockholm Water Prize/LS
Wonder what he'll do with the $150,000?
(More information: http://www.siwi.org)
KADER ASMAL, MINISTER OF EDUCATION,
SOUTH AFRICA, WINS 10TH STOCKHOLM WATER PRIZE
Jubilee Prize Award for Visionary Leadership
that Changed South Africa's Water Management
(STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN) The Stockholm Water Foundation today announced that the
10th Stockholm Water Prize has been awarded to Professor Kader Asmal,
current Minister of Education and formerly Minister of Water Affairs and
Forestry in South Africa. In its motivation, the Foundation's nominating
committee wrote:
Professor Kader Asmal, Minister of Education in the Republic of South
Africa, is awarded the 2000 Stockholm Water Prize in recognition of his
unprecedented efforts in the development of vision, legislation and practice
in the field of water management in South Africa.
Professor Asmal - a noted human rights scholar, teacher and activist who
also serves as chairman of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) - has long
been held in high esteem internationally. But it is for his unprecedented
efforts in the field of water management in South Africa that he will
receive the $150,000 Stockholm Water Prize.
After his important contributions to the drafting of the South African
Constitution, Professor Asmal in 1994 became Minister of Water Affairs and
Forestry in President Nelson Mandela's Government of National Unity. In this
position Professor Asmal was responsible for developing an action plan to
solve the country's large water problems. In spearheading a fundamental
overhaul of water management policy and practice doing so, Professor Asmal
went back to his roots, ensuring that policies and practices were anchored
in human rights, social justice and environmental sustainability.
Professor Asmal pioneered major reforms in water legislation such as the
National Water Act of 1998. The country's water is no longer being used as
it was in the apartheid era as a political tool to fuel racial divisions and
segregation. He also instituted far-reaching initiatives such as the Working
for Water Program, Community Water Supply and Sanitation Program and
National Water Conservation Campaign.
The National Water Act has been hailed as the most "comprehensive and
visionary" in the world. Among its key provisions were the "water reserve"
concept that puts human needs and basic ecological functioning before the
interests of commercial or industrial uses; "water-
use rights," which means water use is paid for on a sliding scale (major
water users such as industry and agriculture pay more, and the poor pay what
they can afford); and an acknowledgement that South Africa has a duty to
ensure that neighboring states have an equitable share of water from shared
rivers.
At the time of his ministerial appointment, more than 16 million South
Africans did not have reasonable access to safe drinking water, and some 20
million lacked access to safe sanitation. Today, the situation is changed
drastically, with some four million people having benefited directly through
water provision close to their homes, and another three million benefiting
through access at schools, clinics and work places.
The Community Water Supply and Sanitation Program, which focuses on
providing access to the basic levels of service required to assure health
for all South Africans, has employed some 300,000 people, more than half of
whom were women. By the end of 1998, the Working for Water Program was
employing 24,000 people in over 300 projects across the country. Their task
was to clear invading alien plants (species) that robbed South Africa of up
to seven percent of its mean annual runoff, overtook its most productive
lands and threatened its biological diversity.
Professor Asmal's impressive accomplishments to achieve an equitable water
situation in South Africa through legislation and development programs have
garnered notice outside of the country's borders. They have among others
resulted in his appointment as chairman for the World Commission on Dams, an
independent organization developed by both proponents and opponents of large
dams. The commission's goal is to develop international ethics and
guidelines for all parties interested in the building, operating and closing
large dams. Today, there are more than 40,000 large dams (more than 15
meters high) in the world. Internationally, the WCD's work, to be reported
later this year, will have a far-reaching influence on the dams debate,
water utilization and sustainable development in general.
The Stockholm Water Prize, founded in 1990, is presented annually to an
institution, organization, individual or company that has made a substantial
contribution to the preservation, enhancement or availability of the world's
water resources. The Prize recognizes outstanding research, action or
education that increases knowledge of water as a resource and protects its
usability for all life.
HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden will present the Stockholm Water Prize at
a ceremony during the World Water Week in Stockholm in August. Previous
Laureates have come from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, India,
Israel, Japan, Switzerland and the United States and have represented a
variety of disciplines.
Founders of the Stockholm Water Prize include Anglian Water, Aragon
Fondkommission, Bacardi Limited, Compaq, General Motors, Grundfos, ITT
Flygt, Kemira Kemwater, KPMG, Ragn-Sells, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS),
SNECMA, Stockholm Water Festival, Swedish State Railways (SJ), Uponor Group
and the Water Environment Federation.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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