- SIWI – Leading expert in water governance
- /
- Latest
- /
- Stockholm Water Prize: where it all began
Stockholm Water Prize: where it all began
![SWP_DavidSchindler_1991_872x362](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/swp_davidschindler_1991_872x362.jpg)
David W. Schindler is sitting in a canoe in the middle of a lake with the North American wilderness providing a magnificent backdrop, but he is here for business not pleasure. The work he is doing will eventually lead to him being the first recipient of the Stockholm Water Prize in 1991.
For 30 years, the world’s most prestigious water award, the Stockholm Water Prize, has honoured women, men and organizations for extraordinary water-related achievements. Starting with Dr David Schindler in 1991.
The professor of ecology based at the University of Alberta, Edmonton would load samples of aquatic organisms into his canoe with the help of a bag-net. While another instrument chewed into the clay sediment, bringing it up to the surface, while he collected water from different strata of the lake in a plastic bottle.
Schindler’s field samples provide him with facts about the abundance of certain species, biological diversity, levels of acidity, and concentrations of nutrients, toxic trace metals and chlorinated organic compounds, to mention but a few of the variables he wishes to study.
He has been doing field research for more than three decades since setting up the Experimental Lakes Project for Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Ontario.
Schindler’s field samples provide him with facts about the abundance of certain species, biological diversity, levels of acidity, and concentrations of nutrients, toxic trace metals and chlorinated organic compounds, to mention but a few of the variables he wishes to study.
As a limnologist and ecologist, his aim was not to study individual parameters in isolation, but all of them simultaneously, in order to construct an image of the entire lake as an integrated ecosystem.
Schindler’s results, particularly from the late 1970s and early 1980s, were to be instrumental in convincing regulators in the United States and Canada to introduce stricter controls on phosphates and acidifying pollutants such as sulphur dioxide. Measurements of eutrophication levels showed quite clearly that atmospheric nitrogen and carbon have important effects in maintaining phosphorus limitation in lakes, as well as promoting blooms of blue-green algae.
Equally important was the research that showed that the effects of acidification can work their way through the food chain. Many of the results of the project have proved to be highly relevant in the context of sustainable development worldwide.
Since receiving his Prize in 1991, Dr. Schindler, he has initiated new programmes to study the fates and effects of organic pollutants and climate warming in mountain and boreal lakes.
Most recent
![SIWI's Moez Allaoui standing outside, pointing something behind the camera to a group of people standing beside him.](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_1029-300x225.jpeg)
SIWI Amman and UNICEF host Libya representatives for WASH exposure visit
- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
- Water governance
![Aerial view of a green foresty hill](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/chapter6-300x203.jpg)
Water and land: partners in climate mitigation
- Water in landscapes
- Wetlands
- Water governance
![Illustration of Henning Göransson Sandberg, SIWI expert by Cecile Pillon Hue](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/henning_portrait-300x212.png)
What is the role of water in rural and urban school facilities?
- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
- Water in landscapes
- Water governance
- Gender and water
![Community garden in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso with green plantation sand trees in the foreground and 3 people taking care of the plants in the background](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/locoforest_webimg-300x203.jpg)
Taking root: locally driven forest restoration
- Water in landscapes
- Wetlands
- Groundwater
- Resilience through water
![Karin Gardes sitting on Centre Stage at World Water Week 2023, speaking.](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/karin_www2023_closing-300x200.jpg)
Reaping the benefits of cooperation
![Karin Gardes](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/karingardes-1-300x157.jpg)
Innovating water governance. A conversation with Karin Gardes
![Dr. Milika Sobey, representative of the iTaukei people from Fiji. Stands in front of luxurious green plants. She is a keynote speaker in the Opening Ceremony for World Water Week 2023.](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/milika-sobey-keynote-opening-300x225.jpg)
The critical role of Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge for innovation
![Outdoor view of unidentifed indigenous woman, wearing typical clothes and walking in lakeshore with small boats in Atitlan Lake and volcano in background](https://siwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/david-interview-indigenous-300x184.jpg)