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Swedish King presents Stockholm Water Prize to U.S. scientist

10 September 2010 01:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf Thursday presented the Stockholm Water Prize to American woman scientist Rita R. Colwell of the University of Maryland and John Hopkins University in Stockholm, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

Colwell won the prize for her pioneering research on the prevention of waterborne infectious diseases, the second most frequent cause of death of children under five and the cause of sickness of millions.

Colwell has made exceptional contributions to control the spread of cholera, a waterborne pathogen that infects 3 to 5 million people and leads to an estimated 120,000 thousand deaths each year. "Through her ground-breaking research, innovations and decades of scientific leadership, she has defined current understanding of the ecology of infectious diseases and developed the use of advanced technologies to halt their spread,"Professor Leif Andersson, chairman of the Nominating Committee, said at the prize-awarding ceremony.

"Infection by waterborne diseases, parasites, bacteria and viruses cause a reduced capacity for work and daily functions, which creates economic and social disruption and a reduction of a capacity of a country,"Colwell said at an earlier presentation.

"Safe drinking water is absolutely critical to economic stability, social stability and even national security,"Colwell stressed.

Safe drinking water is also one of the most critical issues in the aftermath of disasters as recently seen in Pakistan where safe drinking water became highly scarce due to the floods. Colwell recommended that the most effective way to prevent and eradicate waterborne diseases in developing countries and remote areas include using appropriate local technologies, removing particulate and organisms carrying bacteria that cause diseases.

Colwell told Xinhua that Chinese way of boiling the water is also absolutely right to prevent waterborne diseases, but the challenge for many countries is that the firewood is also in shortage.

Colwell was joined by 17 previous Stockholm Water Prize laureates and hundreds of water related experts at the City Hall of Stockholm.

The Royal ceremony also marks the 20th anniversary of the Stockholm Water Prize and the World Water Week to be concluded on Friday.