Bindeshwar Pathak - Sulabh Founder

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Sulabh Founder Wins Swedish Prize


STOCKHOLM: An Indian doctor who developed cheap toilets to improve sanitation in poor communities won the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize on Wednesday.


Bindeshwar Pathak, 65, will receive the US$150,000 (euro110,057) cash award and a symbolic glass sculpture during a ceremony in Stockholm in August.

The Stockholm International Water Institute said Pathak's achievements ``constitute one of the most amazing examples of how one person can impact the well-being of millions.''

It said Pathak has worked to change social attitudes toward unsanitary behavior in poor areas where latrine buckets have been the practice.

He has developed cost-efficient and water-efficient toilet systems that are now used in 1.2 million homes.

Innovations include a pour-flush toilet system, pay-per-use public facilities in slum communities, water conservation solutions for flushing, waste-water treatment and technologies that convert toilet waste to biogas.

``Dr. Pathak's leadership in attaining these remarkable socio-environmental results has been universally recognized, and not least by those who have secured the freedom of human dignity as a consequence of his efforts,'' the prize citation read.

Pathak founded the Sulabh International Social Service Organization in India in 1970 and has recently started operations in Bhutan and Afghanistan. The organization collaborates with the United Nations settlements program U.N.-Habitat to train engineers and planners from 14 countries in Africa, and plans to start work in Ethiopia, Cambodia, Laos, Angola, Madagascar, the Dominican Republic and Tajikistan.

The Stockholm Water Prize is awarded annually to individuals and institutions for contributions to the preservation, enhancement or availability of the world's water resources.

First awarded in 1991, the prize was founded by several companies, including Fujitsu Siemens, General Motors Corp., Swedish Railways and the Water Environment
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