GWP Bhutan or Bhutan Water Partnership was established with the support of multiple of senior officials from the Royal Government of Bhutan. Dr Lam Dorji being the youngest Chair of GWP South Asia served from 2016-2018 at the Regional Water Partnership.
Born in 1934, Dr. Madhav A. Chitale has played a major role in getting India’s decision-makers and strategic planners to think of water as a resource whose quality and availability need to be safeguarded. As a part of the nationwide programmes to develop cover several rivers, Dr Chitale was one of those who originated of the Ganga Action Plan to improve the waters of the holy river. He was also involved in the development of the World Water Council and the Global Water Partnership.
Born in 1938, at age 84 Dr Motadullah is still fond of reminding the happy memories that he had with GWP as the first Executive Secretary and engaging in establishing Regional and Country Water Partnerships around the world during the inception of the network. He preferred to conduct his value addition come from the perceptive of GWPO as he was heading
For the last three years (2020-2022), GWP and Cap-Net UNDP, with the support of UNEP and UNDP and under the guidance of UNEP-DHI, have implemented a pilot project to help countries protect and restore freshwater ecosystems, with a focus on increasing awareness of environmental data available, capacity development, and action planning through multi-stakeholder engagement.
Mr Nanda Abeywickrama, (former Secretary, Ministry of Lands and Land Development (1978-88) and Director, International Co-operation (1988-94) also worked as a Special Adviser to the Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) from 1997 to 2005. In 1998, Mr Abeywickrama’s name was recommended by the then Director General, IWMI and appointed as a founding member of the Global Water Partnership Technical Advisory Committee for South Asia (SASTAC). Later, he held the position of Regional Chair of GWP South Asia (GWP SAS) from 2005 when the SAS Secretariat was moved to Sri Lanka under the hosting agreement with IWMI. He served as the Chair, GWP SAS from 2005-06 and weaned away from work gradually. Currently, Mr Abeywickrama is in his retirement living with his beloved wife in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sardar Muhammad Tariq, born on 15 May 1939, has over 53 years experience in planning, design,
tendering and construction management of water resources and hydropower development
projects Asia. He was a former Chairman of the South Asia Technical Advisory Committee (SASTAC) and the Regional Chair of Global Water Partnership South Asia (GWP SAS) from 2010 to 2012. Time to time he held the position of Regional Council Member of GWP SAS representing Pakistan and currently holds the position of Executive Director/CEO of GWP Pakistan (Pakistan Water Partnership).
GWP South Asia is passing its 20th Year milestone in 2022. This is high time to honour the founders of our network as the strong foundation they have laid out was stable enough to develop this strong network now with six Country Water Partnerships and more than 400 institutional partners. Therefore, we have decided to bring their voices together on this page as a gratitude to the people who have reshaped policies and water decisions in their countries and spent their energy shed their sweat to ensure a "Water Secure South Asia".
