New Delhi: Dr Pathak to receive Energy Globe Award

New Delhi, Apr 10: In a rare honour to an Indian, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, pioneer of the voluntary sanitation movement in the country, will receive tomorrow in the Brussels-based European Parliament the prestigious 'Energy Globe Award' for his notable contribution in making an ''environment that is worthy to live''.

Dr Pathak, founder of Sulabh International, will be presented the award, set up by the Brussels-based Energy Globe organisation, in the European Parliament during its ongoing session.

In a message felicitating Dr Pathak for winning the award, Energy Globe said: ''Never before such an event has taken place at the European Parliament (Brussels) and we are delighted to celebrate with you the world's best sustainable environmental projects.'' A Padma Vibhushan recipient, Dr Pathak has been chosen for the honour for the bio-gas plants linked to Sulabh toilets he had designed over three decades ago and which are now becoming a byword for sanitation in developing countries all over the world.

A distinctive feature of Dr Pathak's project lies in the fact that besides producing odour-free bio-gas, it also releases clean water rich in phosphorous and other ingredients which are important constituents of organic manure.

The Energy Award was instituted by Wolfgang Neumann seven years ago. He was distressed at finding rapid deterioration in environment taking place all over the world and sought to check it by instituting awards for pioneers who come out with ideas and projects that can reduce environmental pollution.

The Energy Globe Award is given to projects all over the world, which make careful use of resources and employ alternative energy sources. The winning projects are presented in the categories of earth, fire, water, air and youth.

Every year about 700 projects from all over the world are submitted for competition.

Commenting on the awards, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, ''The Energy Globe Awards demonstrate that clean and modern forms of energy to drive sustainable development and reduce environment impacts are available now.'' Dr Pathak had earlier received the Dubai International Award for Best Practices and the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award for Environment The UNDP, in its latest Human Development Report, has also appreciated the Sulabh technology in the field of low-cost toilet system. ''Sulabh has emerged as one of the world's largest non-governmental providers of sanitation facilities,'' it said.

President APJ Abdul Kalam, in his latest book ''Mission India,'' has mentioned the contribution of Dr Pathak in the field of sanitation and liberation of scavengers.

Sulabh is an important partner of the Nairobi-based UN-HABITAT in achieving the Millennium Development Goals for sustainable development in water, sanitation and hygiene.

At the Johannesburg Earth Summit, 2002, it was agreed to halve by 2015 the number of people who do not have access to basic sanitation by taking actions at all levels to develop and implement efficient household sanitation systems, improve sanitation in public places and integrate sanitation into water resources management strategies.

UNI