Indian Marcella D'souza honored Kyoto World Water Grand Prize in Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey, March 22 -- Marcella D'souza, executive director of Watershed Organization Trust in India Sunday won the Kyoto World Water Grand Prize during the closing ceremony of the 5th World Water Forum in Turkey.

D'souza was rewarded the prize of 3,000,000 yen (some 28,000 U.S. dollars) for her contribution of bringing women to the forefront to develop dynamic of a watershed effort.

She developed the gender oriented participatory operation pedagogy, an approach that step by step integrates women, without adopting a confrontational attitude.

It is a continuous process that leads the watershed community to an even greater acceptance of women as equal partners.

She leads Watershed Organization Trust, an NGO established in 1993, to undertake holistic and integrated developmental activities for poverty reduction in resource-fragile and rain-fed areas in India.

The winner said the prize money will be used to continue her program.

Kyoto World Water Grand Prize is presented every three years during the closing ceremony of the World Water Forum to honor a distinguished individual or organization whose grassroots-level activities work towards addressing critical water needs of communities and regions and provide the opportunity for grassroots organizations to present their work on the global scale, as a contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other global targets.

The 5th edition of World Water Forum, the largest water-related event in the world, wrapped up on the World Water Day in the biggest Turkish city of Istanbul.