Interview with Water Expert Prof. Asit Biswas
Water pollution in Thailand
Providing clean and safe drinking water remains one of the most important challenges in Asia. Increasing urbanisation, more extreme weather patterns and bad water management practices all add to list of obstacles in the way of supplying clean water, in particular to the poor.
The Asian Trends Monitoring team spoke to Prof. Asit Biswas, one of the world’s leading authorities on water management, about the challenges and solutions available to water utilities in Southeast Asia. We asked him about the main obstacles and the most promising approaches to extending piped water supply to Asia’s slum dwellers. Prof. Biswas stressed that we have to get away from conventional thinking when it comes to solving the global water issues. During the interview he further asserted that:
“Money is not the problem, technology is not the problem, management is not the problem, water availability is not the problem, the problem is us!”
Watch the entire interview below.
About Prof Asit K Biswas
Update: Prof. Biswas was recently named as one of 25 water heroes by Impeller Magazine.
Prof Asit K Biswas is now universally acknowledged to be one of the world’s leading authorities on water management. He is the Founder and the President of the Third World Centre for Water Management in Mexico, and Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School for Public Policy in Singapore. Formerly a Professor in UK, Canada and Sweden, he was a member of the World Commission on Water, and a founder of the International Water Resources Association and World Water Council. He has been a senior advisor to 18 governments, six Heads of the United Agencies, Secretary General of OECD, NATO, and many other major international organisations.
He has been the author or editor of 69 books and published over 600 scientific and technical papers. His work has now been translated into 33 languages.
If you enjoyed this video interview also check out the interview on Corruption and Poverty with Robert Klitgaard, author of the book Tropical Gangsters, or our discussion with Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist at the Financial Times. In January 2012, we asked people from different countries What is poverty to you?