In a momentous achievement, Professor Lalith Rajapakse, the Director/Centre Chairman of the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Centre for South Asia Water Management (UMCSAWM), has been appointed as the UNESCO Chairholder for Sustainable Water Resources Management in South Asia. This distinguished honour comes under the prestigious UNITWIN (University Twinning and Networking) Program of UNESCO.
The appointment coincides with the 10th anniversary of UMCSAWM and its International Master's program conducted by the Department of Civil Engineering in collaboration with the South Asia Foundation (SAF). This recognition from UNESCO is a testament to the centre's decade-long commitment to promoting regional cooperation through water education. The program has successfully enrolled 54 overseas scholars and over 120 local practising engineers to date in its ongoing MSc program.
Adding to the accolades, UMCSAWM has been nominated by the Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO (SLNCU) as the Sri Lanka Focal Point for the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), the only intergovernmental cooperation programme of the UN system dedicated to water research and management, and related education and capacity development. This dual distinction underscores the centre's pivotal role in advancing sustainable water management initiatives, both regionally and internationally.
