Founder of Sulabh Sanitation Movement in India awarded 2009 Stockholm Water Prize

Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement in India, has been named the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate.

As the founder of the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, Pathak is known around the world for his wide-ranging work in the sanitation field to improve public health, advance social progress and improve human rights in India and other countries.

His accomplishments span the fields of sanitation technology, social enterprise and healthcare education for millions of people in his native country, serving as a model for NGO agencies and public health initiatives around the world.

Since he established the Sulabh Sanitation Movement in 1970, Pathak has worked to change social attitudes towards traditional unsanitary latrine practices in slums, rural villages and dense urban districts, and developed cost-effective toilet systems that have improved daily life and health for millions of people.

He has also waged an ongoing campaign to abolish the traditional practice of manual 'scavenging' of human waste from bucket latrines in India while championing the rights of former scavengers and their families to economic opportunity, decent standards of living and social dignity.

Pathak will formally receive the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize at a Royal Award Ceremony and Banquet during the World Water Week in Stockholm, August 2009.