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2018 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Laureate Honoured for Revolutionising Fight Against Waterborne Diseases


Thursday, 22 March 2018 03:00

Professor Rita Colwell’s life-saving contributions pivotal in the global drive to achieving universal access to safe water

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From left: Mr Bernard Tan, Managing Director of Singapore International Water Week; Mr Ng Joo Hee, Chief Executive of PUB; Professor Rita Colwell, Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Laureate 2018; and Mr Harry Seah, Assistant Chief Executive (Future Systems & Technology) of PUB

Singapore, 22 March 2018 – In conjunction with World Water Day1 and the launch of the International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development 2018 - 20282, Professor Rita R. Colwell was unveiled as the recipient of the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2018 today.

Professor Colwell’s accomplishments and commitment to the pursuit of science and its application have been exceptional. Over her immensely rich and multi-faceted career which continues till today, she has benefited the lives of millions worldwide through her pioneering insights into microbial water quality surveillance and her tireless efforts in building upon these insights to transform the surveillance and control of cholera and other waterborne diseases.

Challenging Conventions and Revolutionising Scientific Approaches

With some 3 in 10 people worldwide, or 2.1 billion3 , lacking access to safe water at home, providing access to safely managed water is critical. Contaminated drinking water alone is estimated to cause 502, 000 diarrhoeal deaths each year, and roughly 10 per cent (361, 000) of all child deaths under 5 years of age. Poor sanitation and contaminated water are also linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, and typhoid4 .

Professor Colwell’s discoveries and innovations have fundamentally changed the way the world thinks of water microbiology.

In the 1980s, when culture-based methods5 were widely accepted as the gold standard for determining if disease-causing bacteria were alive, Professor Colwell’s laboratory discovered that bacteria can exist in a state in which they are alive and can cause harm even though they cannot be cultured. This phenomenon, termed as “viable but non-culturable” (VBNC), highlighted that the use of traditional culture-based methods to determine the safety of water was not adequate. This breakthrough discovery was met with scepticism from prominent scientists at that time, but has now been shown to exist in more than 50 species of bacteria6 , including many pathogens.

Building upon her discovery of the VBNC phenomenon, Professor Colwell was an early and active proponent of the use of novel molecular methods for more accurate and comprehensive diagnostics of water pathogens. She is the key inventor of an approach that uses whole genome sequencing and specialised databases to identify different strains of bacteria, and determine their virulence and resistance to antibiotics. In recent years, Professor Colwell has been focusing her efforts on translating the use of this rapid diagnostic technology (the GENIUS system by CosmosID, Inc.) to a wide range of applications that encompass drinking, recreational, agricultural and recycled waters.

Another breakthrough discovery by Professor Colwell was her earlier work in the 1970s on Vibrio cholerae. Professor Colwell discovered that Vibrio cholerae, which was previously thought to be incapable of surviving more than a few hours outside the human host, occurs naturally in the aquatic environment associated with plankton. This discovery highlighted the critical link between the environment and the cholera disease. It led to her subsequent application of satellite imagery and modelling to predict cholera outbreaks, and the innovative use of affordable sari cloth filters to dramatically reduce drinking water contamination. In particular, the use of sari cloth filters successfully led to the rapid reduction of the incidence of cholera in Bangladesh by 48% in 65 villages of rural Bangladesh, and has also been applied in other cholera-endemic areas such as India and South America.

The model she developed has also been successively refined, such that outbreaks can now be predicted with a few months’ lead time. This model can be further generalised to related waterborne diseases and applied in both developing and developed countries.

Beyond the study of cholera, this explanation of the critical linkage between changes in environmental conditions and disease was significant in leading to further research in the 1990s that showed that climate change could considerably affect the prevalence and spread of human diseases.

In this way, Professor Colwell has applied her scientific knowledge in the most practicable and effective manner to transform the surveillance and control of cholera and other waterborne diseases, and bring about maximum impact on human health for the community.

Shaping Policy for Global Impact

In addition to her seminal scientific contributions, Professor Colwell is also an influential scientific advisor and public administrator who has led and shaped policy and practice through the numerous advisory and leadership positions she held in the U.S. Government, non-profit organisations, as well as scientific advisory boards. Her work spans the globe, from Africa, Bangladesh, India, Singapore to Central and South America, where she has advised governments and communities in tackling cholera and other waterborne diseases. The knowledge she provided has been translated into better policies and improved water treatment in many parts of the world.

Professor Rita R. Colwell said, “I am truly honoured to be this year’s recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, one of the most prestigious global water accolades, on this significant occasion, which takes place on World Water Day and in conjunction with the launch of the International Decade of Action “Water for Sustainable Development”. I am confident the pioneering spirit and innovative mindset represented by the Water Prize will further encourage future generations of talents to realise our shared goal of providing access to safe water for all.”

As the 8th Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Laureate, Professor Rita R. Colwell will deliver the Singapore Water Lecture on 9 July 2018. She will also receive the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize at the Lee Kuan Yew Prize Award Ceremony and Banquet on the same night. The award ceremony is one of the flagship programmes of the Singapore International Water Week, which will be held from 8 – 12 July 2018, co-located with the World Cities Summit and CleanEnviro Summit Singapore. The 8th Singapore International Water Week will feature a range of flagship programmes and platforms that bring together the global value chain of water to share the latest in business and technological innovations, as well as policy developments in water.

ENDS

About the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize
Launched in 2008 to honour outstanding contributions by individuals or organisations towards solving the world's water problems by developing or applying innovative technologies or implementing policies and programmes which benefit humanity, the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize is the highlight of the Singapore International Water Week. Named after Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize laureate receives S$300,000, a certificate and a gold medallion at the award ceremony held during SIWW. The award is sponsored by Temasek Foundation Innovates, a non-profit philanthropic organisation that funds and supports programmes focusing on developing practical solutions for a better life through research and innovation.

About Singapore International Water Week
The Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) is the global platform to share and co-create innovative water solutions. Comprising the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, Water Leaders Summit, Water Convention, Business Forums, Industrial Water Solutions Forum, Water Expo, TechXchange, Young Water Leaders Summit and HydroPreneur Programme, SIWW delivers a range of flagship programmes and platforms that bring together the global value chain of water to share the latest in business and technological innovations, as well as policy developments in water. The 8th Singapore International Water Week will be held from 8th – 12th July 2018, co-located with the World Cities Summit (WCS) and CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESS). For more information, please visit www.siww.com.sg/.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Kevin Foo
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
Singapore International Water Week
Tel: +65 6390 3320

Guan Ling Lim
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
Singapore International Water Week
Tel: +6563903328

Sally Toh
PUB
Singapore International Water Week
Tel: + 65 6731 3108

Dilys Quek
PUB
Singapore International Water Week
Tel: + 65 6731 3124






5 A culture-based method is a method of determining the presence of live microorganisms in a sample by letting them grow and multiply in a medium under controlled laboratory conditions. It is one of the primary tools used to determine the presence and abundance of bacteria

6 Some of these VBNC bacteria include Salmonella enterica6 and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which cause gastroenteritis and tuberculoisis respectively



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