John Briscoe (July 30, 1948 – November 12, 2014) was a South African-born environmental engineer who was Visiting Professor of the Practice of Environmental Health in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health. He was known as "Mr. Water" to environmental economists. At Harvard, Briscoe also held appointments at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) as Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Environmental Engineering, and at the Harvard Kennedy School. His career focused on efforts on the developing world to successfully manage and preserve water as a precious resource. In early 2014, he received the Stockholm Water Prize - the “Nobel Prize of Water" - for "unparalleled contributions to global and local management of water - contributions covering vast thematic, geographic, and institutional environments-that have improved the lives and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide.”
He spoke English, Afrikaans, Bengali, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Chronology
1948 - Born in South Africa
1969 - B.Sc., Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa 1976 - Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, Harvard University Government water agencies of South Africa and Mozambique, Engineer Cholera Research Center, now ICDDR,B, Bangladesh, Epidemiologist University of North Carolina, Professor of Water Resources 1989-2009 - World Bank (20 years): He helped oversee projects in water resources, irrigation, hydropower, and sanitation at the World Bank and consulted on water issues for nonprofits, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses 1989-2009 - World Bank, country director for Brazil: Briscoe’s role in affecting the evolution of the World Bank was the subject of Chapter 13 in Sebastian Mallaby’s definitive history, “The World’s Banker,” Penguin 2006. 2009-2014 - Professor of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 2014 - Stockholm Water Prize - "Nobel Prize of Water”
Early life
John Briscoe was born in, and grew up in, South Africa. His mother Thelma ran a day-care center and orphanage in the black township of Soweto. His nation's extremes of poverty and wealth were seen in the social and ecological landscape, the lush coastal regions contrasted with the dry but economically important interior, where massive mineral mining operations were carried out. He described realizing that understanding water was fundamental to understanding the development of South African resources and the many social and economic inequalities of the continent. He continued developing these views while living in the interior of Bangladesh, where he witnessed how water projects and flood-protection and electrification could improve human lives greatly. He spent the rest of his career controlling water, whether for environmental or human purposes, and crusading.
A native of South Africa, John earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineeringat the University of Cape Town in 1969, an M.S. in environmental engineering in 1972, and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at Harvard University in 1976. Before coming to Harvard, he worked as an engineer in the government water agencies of South Africa and Mozambique; an epidemiologist at the Cholera Research Center, now ICDDR,B in Bangladesh; a professor of water resources at the University of North Carolina; and, for 20 years, at the World Bank, where he helped oversee projects in water resources, irrigation, hydropower, and sanitation. He has consulted on water issues for nonprofits, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses.
At Harvard, John launched the university-wide Harvard Water Security Initiative, which focuses on major challenges in countries around the world, including the ability to provide people with safe drinking water and food, to produce energy and sustain economic growth, and to enhance environmental quality. He taught popular undergraduate and graduate courses on water and was nominated for major teaching and mentoring awards. In addition, he led groups of students from across the university in collaborative research on water management in the Colorado, Indus, Mississippi, Murray-Darling, and Sao Francisco basins.