Sanitation: AMCOW AfricaSan Awards 2009 winners

Updated - Friday 22 January 2010

The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) has named winners of Africa’s premier awards for exemplary achievements in sanitation and hygiene. The AMCOW AfricaSan top honour for Leadership has been awarded to His Royal Highness Chief Macha, a traditional and community leader from Zambia who has used his status in a uniquely proactive manner to advocate for improved sanitation, not just in his Kingdom of Tonga which has now attained Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, but also in the wider district and province with a multitude of stakeholders.

Professor Albert Wright received an AMCOW AfricaSan Lifetime Achievement Award for his more than four decades significant contributions to strategic development of water, sanitation and hygiene at global, African and national levels. He has been teacher, researcher, innovator, investment adviser, policy advisor and inspiration and mentor to an entire generation of the African water and sanitation community.

The AMCOW AfricaSan honour to an NGO/Civil Society Institution has been awarded to the Ethiopia Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Movement. Dr Peter Morgan, a Zimbabwean national received the AMCOW AfricaSan honour for Technical Innovation. For four decades he has provided Africa with the most innovative technical ideas in sanitation and hygiene directly affecting poor people. A special commendation was made to His Royal Highness Prince Willem‐Alexander for his global leadership role in advancing the cause of improved sanitation and hygiene.

The awards were presented in November 2009 during the 2nd Africa Water Week.

Source: DWAF, 09 Nov 2009

The award ceremony and an interview with Chief Macha feature in a UNICEF video about the 2nd Africa Water Week