He is a former vice president of the World Bank, past-president of the World Water Council and served as chairman of the International Steering Committee of the Dialogue on Water and Climate. He compiled the results of the first phase of the UNESCO-Green Cross International Programme Potential for Conflict to Cooperation Potential (PCCP) in Water Security and Peace: A Synthesis of Studies Prepared under the PCCP-Water for Peace Process. From 2005-2008 he was President of the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement in Québec. In 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science by McGill University 's Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and in 2004 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the UNESCO-IHE training institute.