Totaro Goto

A Japanese SWRO trailblazer, reaching out to convert his government to SWRO and help turn Japanese desal outward-looking instead of inward-buying.

Totaro Goto – Tom Pankratz

Totaro was hired by the Japanese government's research institute in 1969, to work on the then National Project on Seawater Desalination by MSF. He managed, however, to extend his research in coming years to water reuse and to SWRO while remaining in principle in the same role.

In 1989, he moved to the Water Re-use Promotion Centre, managing SWRO and water re-use R&D. In an indication of the maturing of Japanese desal, he advised on technical support to desal projects in the Middle East and eastern Asia. He retired in 2009, when he received an IDA Life Achievement Award.