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Bindeshwar Pathak of India to Receive United Nations Environment Award
In India, 700 million people and 120 million households have no access to public or private toilets. Fifty million bucket toilets are cleaned by half a million “scavengers”. This has led to atmospheric pollution, health hazards and a class of people who clean up the excreta of others. To address this situation, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, a social worker, environmentalist and founder of the Sulabh International Social Service Organization, developed the technology of a twin-pit, pour-flush toilet known as “Sulabh Shauchalaya”, of which one million have been constructed. This environment friendly technology provides on-site disposal with no smell and soil pollution, and it conserves water. Through this development, there has been a massive change in the attitude and behaviour of people towards sanitation.
Indians now readily pay user charges in some 5,500 Sulabh public toilets. Biogas production from human excreta in 100 public toilets and its various uses, e.g. lighting, cooking, etc. and the use of effluent as rich fertilizer is one of his hallmark contributions. To the biogas plant is attached the Sulabh effluent plant, whereby water discharged is made colourless, odourless and pathogen-free, fit for discharge into any water-body, promoting a better and healthier environment. In both the technologies, there is production of organic nutrient-rich fertilizer and re-use and recycling of waste matter.
"The winners of UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour are members of a broad environmental movement that is flourishing around the world. They have taken the path that most of us hesitate to take for want of time or caring," says UNEP’s Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer. "In honouring the Global 500 laureates, UNEP hopes that others will be inspired by their extraordinary deeds."
The award will be presented to Dr. Pathak in Beirut, Lebanon by Mr. Toepfer, at the World Environment Day ceremonies on 5 June 2003.
Note to Editors: World Environment Day, which is celebrated every year in some 120 countries around the world on 5 June, was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to focus global attention and action on environmental issues.
Since the inception of the award in 1987, 735 individuals and organizations, in both the adult and youth categories, have been honoured with the Global 500 award. Among prominent past winners are: French Marine explorer Jacques Cousteau; Sir David Attenborough, producer of environmental television programmes; Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway; Anil Aggarwal, the prominent environmentalist from India; Ken Saro-Wiwa, the environmental and human rights activist from Nigeria who was executed for leading the resistance of the Ogoni People against the pollution of their Delta homeland; the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States; Jane Goodall of the United Kingdom whose research on wild chimpanzees and olive baboons provided insight into the lives of non-human primates; and the late Chico Mendes, the Brazilian rubber tapper who was murdered during his fight to save the Amazon forest.
Journalists wishing to establish contact with Dr. Pathak can do so at:
Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak
Sulabh International Social Service Organization
Sulabh Bhawan, Mahavir Enclave
Palam Dabri Road
New Delhi 110 045
India
Tel: (91-11) 2503 1519
Fax: (91-11) 2503 4014
E-mail: sulabh1@nde.vsnl.net.in
Web: www.sulabhinternational.org
For more information, please contact: Eric Falt, Spokesperson/Director of UNEP's Division of Communications and Public Information (DCPI), on Tel: 254-(0) 20-623292, Mobile: 254- (0) 733-682656, E-mail: eric.falt@unep.org or Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox, Head of DCPI's Outreach & Special Events Unit on Tel: 254-(0) 20-623401, Mobile: 254-(0)722-600353; E-mail: elisabeth.guilbaud-cox@unep.org or Nick Nuttall, UNEP Head of Media, DCPI, on Tel: 254-(0) 20-623084, Mobile:254-(0)733-632755, E-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org
UNEP Web Site: http://www.unep.org
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