Professor Asit K. Biswas, who has been named as the recipient of the 2006 Stockholm Water Prize, has made outstanding and multi-faceted contributions to global water resource issues.

Now a Canadian citizen and president of the Mexico City-based Third World Centre for Water Management, Biswas is a tirelessly working on global water conservation. He helped foster a critical re-think among United Nations agencies, national governments, professional associations and others about how to improve delivery of water and sanitation services and management of our water resources.

Born at Balasore, Orissa, Biswas did his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1960 and followed it up with an M.Tech. from the same institute.

He did his Ph.D. from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, in 1967. He has served as the president of the International Society for Ecological Modelling as also the International Water Resources Association.

He was one of the founders of the World Water Council. He has been a senior advisor to 17 governments at ministerial and secretarial levels and to six Heads of U.N. agencies.

From 1969 to 1972, he served as the chief of the Department of Energy, Mines & Resources in Ottawa, Canada. He was the director of the Department of Environment in Ottawa from 1972 to 86 and was senior fellow, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria from 1978 to 1979.

He is the president of Biswas & Associates in Oxford, England, and was a research scientist in Oxford University from 1984 to 1995. These are but a few of the host of prestigious posts he has held in institute of global repute across the world.

Biswas is the author of 64 books and over 600 papers, some of which have now been translated into 31 languages.

He has also been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Technology by the University of Lund, Sweden, "for outstanding contributions to his field". He received the highest award of the International Water Resources Association, the Crystal Drop Award, in 1994 for "outstanding lifetime achievements in water management".

Despite all his work that has taken him all over the world, he has maintained alose links with India. He helped UNDP and UNIDO to establish Pollution Control Research Institute, Haridwar, within BHEL, and acted as the chief technical advisor for its establishment. He has been an advisor to the Central Water Commission and Ministry of Environment of the Government of India, Government of Gujarat, WAPCOS, and several other Indian institutions. In addition, he evaluated the Indira Gandhi Nahar Project, Bhima Command Development, Medium Irrigation projects in Madhya Pradesh and Groundwater Development Projects in Uttar Pradesh, which were funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development. He visits India frequently.

The Stockholm Water Institute says it is making the 2006 Water Prize to Biswas for his outstanding and multi-faceted contributions to global water resource issues, including research, education and awareness, water management, human and international relations in both developed and developing countries.

The Stockholm Water Prize is a global award founded in 1990 and presented annually to an individual, organisation or institution for outstanding water-related activities. The activities can be within fields like education and awareness-raising, human and international relations, research, water management and water-related aid.

Apart from the cash component, Biswas will receive a glass sculpture, to be presented during the 2006 World Water Week, which will be held in in Stockholm from August 20 to 26.