The 4th Award Ceremony of the Latin American and the Caribbean Water Prizes (PLACA in Spanish), took place on October 22, 2008 at the Panama Canal Miraflores Visiting Center. The Ceremony brought together representatives from the Diplomatic Corps, international organizations, governmental agencies and the business sectors.
Established in 2005, the PLACA Water Prizes recognize and share innovative solutions in the field of integrated water resources management in the Latin America and the Caribbean region and are a regional initiative that promotes the International Decade for Action “Water for Life” 2005-2015 proclaimed by the United Nations. The PLACA Water Prizes seek to honor outstanding local, national and regional efforts and best practices of communities, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, businesses, schools, youth movements, journalists, and individuals that serve as examples to halving, by 2015, the world wide proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
The PLACA Water Prizes are a regional initiative of CATHALAC in partnership with CARE USA, UNICEF’s Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, Plan’s Regional Office for the Americas, UNEP’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Panama Canal Authority, and the collaboration of Olga Sinclair, New Concept Publications and Courtyard by Marriott Panama Real Hotel.
After the difficult task the PLACA International Evaluating Committee had in selecting the winners, here are the final results of the 2008 PLACA Prize Categories:
Business Prize
The 2008 Business Prize was awarded to Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos, S.A. (AySA), for their Water Plan + Work in the district of La Matanza. Water Plan + Work has a goal of making it possible for low-income communities to have access to potable water. This plan is a strategic tool for specific intervention for the provision of potable water service in communities with low economic resources in the Buenos Aires conurbation. Furthermore, Water Plan + Work’s methodology is highlighted by using low-skilled labor, enabling them to develop works by extending current water networks. By 2011, they plan to provide potable water service to nearly 1 million people from economically vulnerable sectors.
Community Prize
The 2008 Community Prize was awarded to Fundação O Boticário de Proteção à Natureza Brasil (The O Boticario Foundation for Nature Protection in Curitiba, Brazil) for their Oasis Project. The Project seeks to strengthen the protection of what remains of the Atlantic Forest and related ecosystems in the Springs Protection Area of the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, specifically in the watershed of the Guarapiranga Dam, and the environmentally protected areas in the municipalities of Capivari-Monkeys and Bororos-Colônia. These areas cover approximately 82 thousand hectares.
Junior Prize
The 2008 Junior Prize was awarded to Augusto Germán Niez Gay, a 15 year old student, for his study "Propolis IN ACTION II" that determines the antimicrobial activity of propolis (a resin, the product of bees, with medicinal properties, including the bactericide and fungicide) from different botanical origins of the Region of Salto Grande, Province of Entre Rios, Argentina, against the bacteria Escherichia coli and total coliforms. The bactericidal action in water, or microbial decontamination of propolis in the liquid medium for in-home use, is one of the most important aspects to consider, given that population growth weakens the capacity of natural purification of the aquifer systems. This research opens an innovative line of work of using propolis as a major economic resource in the Region of Salto Grande.
Media Prize
The first 2008 media Prize Winner was awarded to Oliver José Gómez Vallecillo, a Social Journalist from Nicaragua with 13 years of experience in this field and currently Editor and Chief of El Nuevo Diario Newspaper in Nicaragua. Gomez was awarded for his series of research reports called “Pure Water or Pure Lies” published in the El Nuevo Diario Newspaper in Nicaragua. His work exposed the bottled water industry, and the facts and quality standards that should be taken into serious consideration by consumers when they’re ingesting a product that is a vital liquid for life.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Marco Antonio Campos Rosemberg, MSc in Environmental Health, born in Peru in 1938. For more than a quarter century, he has been characterized by an unflagging commitment to the health and development of the poor, and therefore, excluded in Peru while coordinating water and sanitation projects in CARE Peru. Marco always understood that with access to clean water and improved sanitation through a system built with active community participation that is managed in a sustainable manner by community members, generates impressive changes in townships, in community members’ health, their self-esteem and their view of themselves as stakeholders being proactive in the development of their community.
