'The sanitation problem has a complex solution,' Jon Lane, executive director of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), told IANS. 'If it was easy it would have been done by now. It needs a systemic intervention. This involves politicians, educators, entrepreneurs, technologists, financiers and philanthropists. Each has a particular role to play.'

Inadequate sanitation and its devastating effects on the world's poor comprise humanity's most urgent, yet solvable crisis, according to international leaders and experts convening at the 2009 World Water Week in Stockholm.

The founder of Sulabh Sanitation Movement in India, Pathak is known around the world for his wide-ranging work in the sanitation field. He has worked to improve public health, has advanced social progress, and has improved human rights in his home nation and other countries.

His accomplishments span the fields of sanitation technology, social enterprise, and health care education for millions of people, serving as a model for NGOs and public health initiatives around the world.

'If water is honoured by the prize being named after it, the importance of sanitation, its sibling, cannot be left far behind,' Pathak said in his acceptance speech. 'The two complement rather than compete with each other. Provision of sanitation provides dignity and safety, especially to women, and reduction of child mortality. As a matter of fact, safe water and sanitation go hand in hand for improvement of community health.'

Jan Eliasson, a Swedish official and chair of WaterAid Sweden, told IANS: 'Finally we are paying due attention to this looming catastrophe. I am glad to say that Dr. Pathak is eminently and uniquely suited to take this daunting challenge in hand.'