India's CSE Receives Stockholm Water Prize

Indian environmental crusader Sunita Narain and her Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) were honored with the 2005 Stockholm Water Prize in a ceremony at the Stockholm City Hall.

Narain, the director of CSE, received the $150,000 prize and a crystal sculpture from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in a ceremony Thursday that was a part of the ongoing World Water Week in Stockholm.

Narain and CSE were recognized for "fighting powerful, top-down bureaucratic resource control, empowering women in water and rejuvenating traditional rainwater harvesting."

Narain said she accepted the award on behalf of thousands of water engineers and water managers all over the world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

"CSE's own work and belief has been based on the imperative of change," she said. "It is also based on the arrogance that we can bring about change because we are working our democracy."

According to her, the management of water and not scarcity of water was the problem in many parts of the world.

"Water is not about water," she said on Thursday. "Water is about building people's institutions and power to take control over decisions. Water will define if we remain poor or become rich."

The Stockholm International Water Institute is a policy institute that contributes to international efforts at finding solutions to the world's escalating water crisis.

Source: SWIC