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Europe’s Sanitation Problem: 20 Million Europeans Need Access to Safe and Affordable Sanitation
Tuesday 19 August
Afternoon Seminar
Convenors: Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE), Coalition Clean Baltic, Earth Forever, Bulgaria, Euroteleorman Romania and Creative Slovakia
Event Summary and Conclusions
The seminar “Europe’s Sanitation Problem” at the World Water Week addressed the problem of more than 20 million European citizens who do not have access to safe sanitation. The women’s network “Women in Europe for a Common Future” convened the seminar to draw attention to the fact that in European member states children are at risk of blue baby disease, hepatitis-A and gastrointestinal diseases due to unsafe sanitation. Around 150 participants from all sectors participated. After the seminar, a group consisting of 46 participants attended a study visit to 2 Stockholm neighbourhoods with innovative onsite sanitation.
The lack of safe sanitation in rural areas in the European Union was presented in films, pictures and statistics. The common system of pit latrines especially in rural Eastern Europe are a cause of groundwater pollution in many villages which depend on wells for drinking water. The unsafe water and sanitation situation adversely affects public health and thus hinders the economic development in the region.
Project examples from Romania and Bulgaria showed that the introduction of dry urine diverting toilets, hand washing facilities and greywater treatment in villages without central water supply improves the health conditions at once.
The European Commission said that it is of importance to address the governance issue. The Commission wants to publish a new version of the EU guide on small scale sanitation for solving Europe’s rural sanitation problem. Additionally the Commission wants to enter into dialogue with the authorities, funding agencies and NGOs in new Member States to find solutions for the urgent sanitation problems.
WECF calculated that based on sustainable dry sanitation systems demonstrated in Romania and Bulgaria, comfortable indoor bathrooms with toilets for households would cost 600 euro per household. Therefore, if all households without access to safe sanitation obtained such systems, less than 480 million Euro would be needed for an immediate solution. Compared to the total budget of more than 336 billion euro of EU structural funds, the financial aspect should not be a barrier.
Seminar Programme 13:30-17:00, Room T6
13:30 |
Opening: The International Year of Sanitation
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13:45 |
Film on Sanitation in Eastern Europe (5 min.)
“Access to Safe Sanitation, a Right for All” |
13:50 |
Europe’s Problem: More Than 20 Million People Need Safe and Affordable Sanitation: An Action Plan is Needed
Sascha Gabizon, Executive Director, WECF, The Netherlands |
14:00 |
EU Policy and Operational Programmes in New Member States: Can the EU Help Solve the Sanitation Problems?
Helmut Bloech, Deputy Head of Unit Water and Marine, DG Environment, European Commission
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14:15 |
Policy Options for Ecological Sanitation in Europe
Anders Wijkman, Member of the European Parliament
Sanitation and government policy - A local, national and European problem
Charles Berkow, Parliamentary Office, Green Party, Sweden |
14:30 |
Rural sanitation and waste water treatment and re-use of nutrients, Bulgarian perspective
Miroslava Georgieva, Director Rural Development Directorate, Ministry of Agriculture and food, Bulgaria
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14:45 |
Demonstrating affordable decentralized sanitation, waste water and nutrient re-use in rural Bulgaria
Diana Iskreva, Director, Earth Forever Foundation, Bulgaria |
15:00 |
Coffee break |
15:15 |
The market for ONSITE
sustainable sanitation
technologies
Mats Johansson,
VERNA Ecology Consultancy
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15:30 |
Catalysts and obstacles in implementing the right to sanitation in Romania
Adina Florea, Head of Water Quality Office, Directorate for Water Resources Management,
Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Romania and Mihaela Vasilescu, NGO M&S
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15:45 |
Panel discussion, with comments and questions from the participants -
Including MEP, representatives of authorities authorities, universities, business and civil society:
• Stanislav Doctor, Assistant Director of Local Development Division,
Association of Towns and Municipalities of Slovakia (ATMS)
• Friedrich Barth, Chair, European Water Partnership
• Duncan Mara, Professor, University of Leeds, UK
• Ralf Otterpohl, Professor, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany
• Arno Rosmarin, Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden
• Anders Wijkman, MEP, Sweden
• Galia Bardarska, Ass. Professor, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia |
16:50 |
Conclusions and the Way Forward
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17:00 |
Excursion for seminar participants to two projects on sustainable sanitation in Stockholm (optional)
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20:00 |
open end Dinner and drinks (optional) offered by GWP |
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Presentation from the event
 Please scroll down and find the link from the programme
Programme
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