Professor John Briscoe is a native of South Africa but got his PhD in environmental engineering at Harvard, where he currently works.
He was named the 2014 Stockholm Water Prize winner for his contributions to local and global water management.
Professor Briscoe says issues regarding water are extremely complex.
"For example, right now I live in Boston and there aren't any water issues of particular importance. But at the same time, we have California in a situation of extreme draught and extreme stress. So these are all in the United States, and you have such a different realities even within one country, or let alone between countries. So you have to really look at water reality in its natural complexity, and historical and political complexity."
He said history is also important. Mankind has done great things in the past and there are great challenges ahead too.
He said in South Africa, he has worked on many projects, transferring water from areas with ample supply to much more arid locations.
"So we grew up by living in all the semi-arid areas in South Africa, with an acute sense always to Turn off the tap, don't waste water, water is expensive, water is difficult to bring, don't think it will always be there. And all these things have incorporated in me as a child."
In the citation, the Stockholm Water Prize Committee says Briscoe has combined world-class research with policy implementation and practice.
He used to live in Bangladesh and learned how infrastructure for protection from floods and droughts could transform the lives of the poor. Later he worked for the government of Mozambique and in 2003 he developed a water strategy for the World Bank.
He will receive his prize from the hands of Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Patron of the Stockholm Water Prize, during World Water Week in Stockholm on September 4.
For CRI, this is Chen Xuefei reporting from Stockholm.
