The South African Education Minister, Mr Kader Asmal, has won a £122,000 prize for his work to bring clean drinking water to millions of his countrymen.
The Stockholm Water Institute (SIWI) said yesterday that Mr Asmal, a former minister of water and forestry, had won for his "unprecedented efforts and the development of vision, legislation and practice in the field of water management in South Africa".
The Swedish institute awards the prize annually to the person or group which has done most to solve the world's water problems.
When Mr Asmal became minister under Mr Nelson Mandela in 1994 he had to provide access to clean drinking water to 16 million people. He improved the situation through a programme aiming to put everyone within 200 metres of 20 litres of water.