World Water Week in Stockholm

Drinking-water quality continues to be the cause of significant preventable disease in both developing and developed nations. Following, and in response to, the publication of the third edition of WHO's Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality and the IWA Bonn Charter for Safe Drinking Water in 2004, Water Safety Plans were developed to help manage risks with a framework that encompasses all aspects of safety from catchment to consumer. WSPs have proven to allow multi-barrier approaches, enhance consumer confidence and enable improved stakeholder engagement.

The seminar was co-convened by WHO and IWA, and aimed to create a consensus among major donors, key government agencies, NGOs, and other stakeholders for a harmonised policy position on WSPs. Participants received the information necessary to enable a widespread scaling-up in the application of WSPs, and were shown a number of case studies that demonstrated their benefits, especially those that relate to health.

Guy Howard from the Department for International Development of the UK government (DfID) stated: "It’s important to get all major players ... to develop more standardised approaches which are more cost-effective, consistent and coherent".

“Using a WSP approach helped us to measurably reduce nosocomial infection in our hospital“, was one quote from Germany where a WSP has been implemented on a long-term basis.

All participants welcomed the offer to re-convene at the Stockholm Water Week in 2009 to demonstrate progress and share their experience in applying WSPs. They agreed to develop a policy document over the next 9 months which send a clear and consistent commitment to mainstreaming WSPs into national and international water & sanitation policies.

Seminar Programme 09:00-12:00, Room K11

Chair: Mr. Paul Reiter, International Water Association, the Netherlands
Co-chair: Dr. Jamie Bartram, World Health Organisation, Switzerland

09:00	Welcome and Introduction Dr. Jamie Bartram, World Health Organisation (WHO), Switzerland
09:15	A Global Strategy for Supporting Implementation of Water Safety Plans Mr. Tom Williams, International Water Association (IWA), the Netherlands
09:30	Mainstreaming Water Safety Plans into Policy Frameworks Dr. Guy Howard, Department for International Development (DfID), United Kingdom
09:50	Scaling Up Implementation of Water Safety Plans in Asia Mr. Gerard Cheong, Australian Government's Overseas Aid Program (AusAID), Australia
10:10	Coffee Break
10:40	Opportunities for Water Safety Plan Implementation in Africa Ms. Sarah Tibatemwa, National Water and Sewerage Commission, Uganda
11:00	Water Safety Plans and Public Health in Latin America and Caribbean Dr. Richard Gelting, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States
11:20	Discussion and Panel Debate
12:00	Close Of Seminar

Presentation from the event

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