Maltese water engineer Marco Cremona has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2012 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate.
Mr Cremona has been selected by the nominating committee as a top candidate in two of the three categories of the prize, that is considered to be the most prestigious one for outstanding achievements in water-related activities. International commentators have even likened it to an environmental Nobel Prize.
The Stockholm International Water Institute, which finances and organises the Stockholm Water Prize, says awardees have made “outstanding achievements of lasting significance in developed or developing countries and provided stimulation for further important work.”
Mr Cremona said this recognition was “simply mind blowing and an impossible dream come true.”
The 42-year old hydrologist was nominated by colleagues at the Malta Water Association for the “Raising Public Awareness and Outreach” and “Research” categories.
Describing himself as an activist, he aims at “safeguarding Malta’s limited but strategically-critical (ground) water resources”. On the other hand, he is also a professional, a water educator and a researcher. His own house is self-sufficient for water and has won international awards, including the France 5 Report Terre award, as the best environmental project in the EU.
Mr Cremona’s work has toured the world as his projects were documented by Al Jazeera and US magazine IEEE Spectrum among others.
One of his most notable achievements, the Hoter project, which was also a finalist in the CNBC/Allianz Good Entrepreneur Competition, recycles wastewater in hotels by treating it to drinking water standard.
The project sought the best green business idea in Europe. CNBC produced four 45-minute episodes from this competition which were televised worldwide in November 2009. Although he did not win, by a whisker, the Maltese engineer is still receiving enquiries two years after it was televised.
Mr Cremona has also worked on a voluntary basis in Kenya, post-tsunami Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Ethiopia, while his assistance was requested for projects carried out in Guatemala, Nepal, Ecuador, Morocco and Peru.
He has been working in the water industry for nearly 20 years. He is still striving to “make a positive difference, albeit a small one, in the lives of people and future generations, in Malta and beyond”.
“Water is probably one of the best mediums to achieve this goal. Water is a very scarce, but often unappreciated commodity, so there is no shortage of challenges to choose from,” he said.
His next plan is to submit a winning nomination by October 26. The Stockholm Water Prize Laureate will be announced on March 22 at the UN World Day for Water and honoured in August during the World Water Week in Stockholm at the Royal Prize Ceremony and Banquet in the Stockholm City Hall. At the ceremony, the Laureate would receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, patron of the Stockholm Water Prize.“In the long term I hope I can be instrumental in establishing Malta as a shining example of sustainable water management in the world, despite our inherent demographic and geographic limitations,” Mr Cremona said.