Special Prize 2010

In 2010, the Jury awarded the Special Prize to the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), founded in 2001 by Camille Dow Baker, for the originality of its project.

CAWST is a Canadian engineering organisation that aims to help communities find and implement locally appropriate technical and managerial solutions relating to water and sanitation.

CAWST offers a training method built around nine major topics, such as water treatment, low-cost sanitation and rainwater harvesting in disadvantaged regions.

To disseminate ideas and transfer skills, CAWST has a policy of forming partnerships with agencies, so-called WET centres, providing services similar to its own in the local area.

The 2010 Special Prize will enable CAWST to consolidate and expand its mission further afield.

“I am encouraged by your belief that the only sustainable solution to improve access to water and sanitation for the poor requires the transfer of knowledge to empower people so that they can better provide for their own basic needs. Today my spirit has been strengthened because, if it is possible for a woman from very humble beginnings on a small Caribbean Island to be so honoured by a multi-national corporation and a highly reputed European institute of learning, then certainly it is possible to provide better water and sanitation services for the world’s poor.”
Baker, President of CAWST

Watch the "Special Prize" winner’s project film