2001
Department of Environment (St. John’s)

Haseen Khan has been with the Water Resources division since 1990, and with his staff, has taken the watershed protection program to a new level of excellence. His most outstanding achievement is having solidly established the primacy of watershed management for the purpose of protecting drinking water supplies, while accommodating input from all stakeholders and regulators.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s network of river flow monitoring stations owes its very existence in large part to his tireless efforts in working with federal and private sector partners. In 1997 a new "Community Water and Watershed Section" was established, to streamline the approval process for water and sewer projects and integrate them with other division functions. Haseen showed innovation and leadership by taking responsibility for organizing the new section and ensuring seamless management. The good work of this section has proved invaluable, not only to the province but also as a model for the country, as water quality issues emerged in recent years.

Haseen is a leader not only provincially and nationally, he also provides an international water management model: he was invited to Russia as part of a Canadian delegation, to explain how Newfoundland and Labrador’s watershed protection program could be applied in the Lake Aral region.

Haseen is extremely diligent and focused on the goals of his division and his department. No task is left unattended, however small or inconvenient, because Haseen is keenly aware of how all work together to ensure quality service to the people of this province. He is the first one in and the last one out, every day. He always finds a way to achieve a positive outcome, no matter how difficult the process.