Mr. Mark Pascoe, CEO of the International WaterCentre at Griffith University, Australia, who had served as Chair of the Governing Council of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF) since April 2022, passed away suddenly on August 13.

We are deeply shocked to hear of Mr. Mark Pascoe’s sudden passing, and would like to express our sincere condolences.

As a long-time member of the APWF, Mr. Mark Pascoe has always provided useful advice based on his expertise and the lessons learned from his field experience on water issues in Asia and the Pacific island countries, especially from the perspective of governance in the water utility sector.　He notably took on the leading role in preparing the Asian Water Development Outlook 2016 and its 2020 editions, published by the Asian Development Bank, coordinating and summarizing the perspectives of diverse stakeholders.

Immediately after taking over the chairing roles of the APWF Governing Council, he demonstrated his leadership at the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit (APWS). He supported the APWF President Yoshiro Mori, who chaired the 4th APWS. He also served as moderator of the Heads of Government Meeting (HSG) and the high-level statement sessions of the 4th APWS. He presented the recommendations and pathways for improving water governance in Asia and the Pacific. Furthermore, he also gave useful feedback in line with the discussion outcomes for the parallel session on youth leadership and innovation.

Mr. Mark Pascoe was very gracious and always willing to respond to our every request. Based on the results of the 4th APWS, we discussed our plans with him, and we had just begun to implement several new initiatives.

We are so very sorry to hear of this tragedy. We feel honored to have had the opportunity to work with him on water solutions in the Asia-Pacific region, albeit it was cut far too short.

We extend our deepest condolences to his family and to all those close to him.

（Photo：Mr. Mark Pascoe in the 4th APWS）