The Stockholm Water Foundation has announced that professor Takashi Asano of the University of California at Davis (UCD) is the 11th recipient of the prestigious international Stockholm Water Prize.
Asano will receive the $150,000 prize considered the top honor of its kind for his "outstanding contributions to efficient water use through wastewater reclamation, recycling and reuse." The Stockholm Water Prize is presented by HM King Carl XVI of Sweden each August in Stockholm and recognizes substantial contributions to the preservation, enhancement or availability of the world's water resources. Asano, an American citizen who is a native of Sapporo, Japan, is the world's foremost expert on the safe and beneficial use of recycled wastewater.
In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Asano spearheaded water reuse research at the California State Water Resources Control Board that culminated in the California Water Recycling Criteria. Today, most international water reuse projects and decrees are based on these criteria.
In recent years, he has led cutting-edge research into health and safety aspects in water reuse. He also has promoted expansion and adaptation of safe water reuse in developed countries such as Israel and Japan, and in the developing world, particularly those water-scarce countries in arid and semi-arid regions with fast growing populations and limited economic resources. He has also promoted understanding among scientists, practitioners and politicians.
In California, at least 330 million m3 of municipal wastewater is currently reused, or about 8 percent of the generated total. Agricultural and landscape irrigation is the largest current and projected use of reclaimed wastewater in the US. At least 20 different food crops are irrigated with reclaimed water in California. The largest industrial application is for paper manufacturing.
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) administers the Prize for the Stockholm Water Foundation.