Healthy Water Resources Planning: Recent Trends in Health Impact Assessment of Water Resources Development

Thursday 21 August
Morning Seminar

Convenors: DBL – Centre for Health Research and Development, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen and World Health Organization (WHO)

Event Summary and Conclusions

WHO defines Health Impact Assessment as a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, programme or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population.
It is a predictive development planning tool, aimed at reducing adverse health impacts and maximizing health benefits. The rationale for investing in HIA includes economic (prevent transfer of hidden costs of development to the health sector), equity (focus on vulnerable groups), sustainability and good governance arguments.

Given the trends in water resources (contextual scarcity, changing rainfall patterns, increased production of wastewater) there is an increased need for HIA in water resources development. Awareness creation and capacity building among professionals from non-health sectors is essential – the recent IWA publication Health Impact Assessment for Sustainable Water Management (Fewtrell and Kay 2008) brings the subject to the attention of water resources professionals.

National governments and multi/bilateral donor agencies have their specific roles to play in ensuring effective and efficient HIAs of water resources development. Critically important is the establishment of a national HIA policy framework that defines decision-making criteria and procedures. Other capacity building efforts should focus on the essential HIA functions of the health sector, and the development of skills in intersectoral negotiation for professionals in all sectors. Recent WHO/DBL/InWEnt efforts in the Mekong countries illustrate the feasibility of delivering integrated HIA capacity building packages; the Nam Theun 2 dam case study from Lao illustrates the need for sound HIA.

The efforts by the International Finance Corporation (IFC, private sector arm of the World Bank group) were highlighted as an example of positive action. They include: expansion of “Guidance Notes” covering IFC Performance Standard #4 Community Health, development and expansion of environmental health areas methodology, development of “HIA Toolkit” and HIA training for Equator Principles financial institutions.

Seminar Programme           09:00-12:00, Room K24

Akiça Bahri is the Director for Africa of IWMI’s regional office in Accra, Ghana and a member of the Scientific Programme Committee of World Water Week

Robert Bos works as a Scientist in WHO Geneva’s Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health programme and is a teamleader for the WSH team “managing water resources to prevent vector-borne and pollution-related disease”.

Lorna Fewtrell, is a Water Resources and Water Quality Consultant, based in Crewe, Cheshire, UK; she is the main editor of a new IWA publication on Health Impact Assessment of Water Resources Development

Peter Furu, works as a Senior Advisor, Environmental Health, DBL – Centre for Health Research and Development, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark – DBL has been a WHO Collaborating Centre in the area of water, environmental management and tropical diseases since 1991.

Gary Krieger, HIA Consultant, USA was the team leader for the HIA of the Nam Theun 2 dam in Lao PDR in 2004

Jürg Utzinger, a scientist with the Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, Switzerland covers a range of issues on the interface of tropical diseases, environment and development, and notably coordinated the WHO commissioned studies on the burden of vector-borne diseases attributable to irrigation schemes and dams

Presentation from the event

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