The
signature of the resolution had witnesses of honor as the
Costa Rican Minister of Health Maria Luisa Avila, Rodrigo
Sancho, Executive President of the AyA Institute and Geraldo
Galvis, from PAHO office.
1st
IWA Development Congress
The 1st IWA Development Congress will take place in Mexico
City on November 15–19, 2009. It is set to become
the pre-eminent international ‘development’
related event for the global water sector. Focused particularly
on addressing issues related to the delivery and implementation
of water as well as sanitation services in low and middle
income countries, it will help to set a research and practice
agenda for the water sector in those countries.
It
is expected to attract water and sanitation professionals
from the Latin American region and across the globe. Participants
will include researchers, practitioners, policy makers,
consultants, manufacturers, technology suppliers and members
of the international development community.
This
meeting is sponsored by IUCN and Water 21. The organization
in charge are the International Water Association and The
Autonomous National University of Mexico. The Technical
Programme Committee is composed of:
| Cleverson
Andreoli, Brazil |
Wan
Ngah Wan, Malaysia |
| Akissa
Bahri, Ghana |
Rose
N. Osinde, Kenya |
| Liliana
Borzaconni, Uruguay |
Miguel
Pea, Colombia |
| Blanca
Jiménez Cisneros, Mexico |
Carlos
Alberto Rosito, Brazil |
| Claudia
Campos, Colombia |
Dilek
Sanin, Turkey |
| Sam
Godfrey UNICEF |
Heidi
Snyman South Africa |
| Simon
Gonzalez, Mexico |
Cassilda
Texeira, Brazil |
| Helmut
Krois, Austria |
Tuula
Tuhkanen, Finland |
| Jiri
Marsalek, Canada |
Zaini
Ujang, Malaysia |
| Mara
P. Mena, Santiago de Chile |
|
For
information visit:
http://www.iwa2009mexico.org/
Note:
Join IWA now to receive a discount on registration as well
as other benefits.
World
Water Day 2009
The
International World Water Day is held annually on March
22 in an attempt to draw attention on the importance of
freshwater, advocating for the sustainable management of
freshwater resources. It was recommended by the 1992 United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
and accepted by The United Nations General Assembly on March
22, 1993.
Each
year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater.
In 2009, the theme for World Water Day was "Shared
Water - Shared Opportunities". Special focus was placed
on transboundary waters.
Nurturing the opportunities for cooperation in transboundary
water management can help build mutual respect, understanding
and trust among countries and promote peace, security and
sustainable economic growth. The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) led the activities
of the World Water Day 2009 with the support of United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
More
information:
http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday
Conclusion
of the 5th World Water Forum
 |
The
5th World Water Forum - Istanbul, Turkey, March 2009-
came to an end after hundreds of hours of discussions,
debate, consensus, and agreement on |
a
number of key water-related issues, identifying the 100 most
pressing water-related issues of our times. The effects of
the Forum in Istanbul will be felt for some time to come,
and the follow-up work is already gathering pace.
Participants
from 192 countries took part in the Forum, children from
21 countries gathered for the 3rd Children's World Water
Forum and 200 young people attended the Youth Forum. 1,027
accredited journalists followed the Forum and thousands
visited the Water Fair and the Water Expo.
The
World Water Forum, organized every three years by the World
Water Council in close collaboration with the authorities
of the hosting country, is an open, all-inclusive, multi-stakeholder
process, which is the culmination of over two years of preparatory
activities. In this way, the World Water Forum is not just
a week-long event; it is a process which aims to raise the
importance, awareness and understanding of water issues
and propose concrete solutions to address global challenges.
This
Forum brought the world to Istanbul to improve our understanding
of divergent points of view, different cultures and shared
solutions, offering the water community and decision-makers
the unique opportunity to make recommendations for ensuring
the security of water resources in the world. Participants
emphasized that water is not an end in itself, but rather
a means for development and well-being, interaction with
other sectors is needed to understand how water can contribute
to the solution of common problems faced by all affected
sectors and the process has to involve local and national
governments as well as parliamentarians, thus ensuring greater
political commitment.
9
Chiefs of State or Government, 84 Ministers and 19 Vice-
Ministers were present in this meeting, coinciding on a
Minister’s Declaration that recommends governments
to intensify their efforts on achieving the Millennium Goals
referred to the improvement of clean and safe water access,
sanitation, hygiene and healthy ecosystems, prevention of
pollution and the development of water management plans,
monitoring systems and transparency.
One
of the meeting’s most controversial issues was the
Minister’s acceptance of the right to safe water and
sanitation access discussed within the United Nations. They
recognized water as a basic human need.
Water
Safety Plan Capacity Building Meetings
23-25 March 2009, Geneva Switzerland
Unsafe drinking-water is a significant cause of disease
in both developing and developed nations. Outbreaks have
shown that sole reliance on monitoring treated water quality
cannot guarantee safe drinking-water. Recognizing this limitation,
the third edition of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water
Quality and the IWA Bonn Charter for Safe Drinking Water
both recommend the adoption of Water Safety Plans (WSPs)
as a means of ensuring the safety of drinking-water. The
Water Safety Plan approach is a preventive risk management
strategy, encompassing all steps in the water supply system.
The
implementation of WSPs can contribute to the overall maintenance
of public health through reducing cases of drinking-water
transmitted disease outbreaks and also leads to broader
socio-economic benefits. In addition, a WSP approach can
save water suppliers money and help target resources. As
a result, WSPs are being increasingly promoted by governments
and implemented by water suppliers across the globe.
To
support scaling up of WSPs, a series of meetings convened
WHO took place in Geneva from 23-25 March, 2009. These meetings
focused on: 1) A WSP assessment tool; 2) WSPs and climate
change and; 3) Harmonization of support for WSPs.
The
main goal of the WSP’s assessment meeting was to further
develop a web-based tool designed to help water suppliers
and regulators in assessing the WSP implementation progress.
This tool will assist the WSP development by identifying
weaknesses and highlighting the areas where additional efforts
are needed.
The
WSPs and climate change meeting focused on ensuring that
WSPs adequately take into account the risks posed by climate
change. The principal objectives were to recommend key risk
assessment and mitigation measures as well as defined future
steps towards a comprehensive guidance document.
The
aim of the harmonization of support for WSPs meeting was
to agree on a process of advocating to strategic water,
health and development stakeholders to progressively commit
them to WSPs as a component of their water, sanitation and
health programming. Proposed consensus position documents,
which would be signed by stakeholders agreeing to the WSP
approach, were introduced at this meeting.
A
consensus was reached on the further steps required in order
to continue these activities as well as the on-going communication
with all interested stakeholders for their continued development.
Impact
in Latin American and the Caribbean
Stephanie Adrian –USEPA, mentioned that a momentum
has been built in the region since the first WSP developed
in Spanish Town, Jamaica in October 2007 with the support
of PAHO, CDC and USEPA and, the official creation of the
LAC-WSP Network in Santiago in October 2008. Currently,
the Network is building upon those efforts to scale up the
WSPs with regards to replication and broader adoption, showing
the range of partners and stakeholders and pulling out some
of the lessons learned, many of which CDC has presented
in various fora. A big part of the success we've had - and
we have far to go - is the existence of the Core Group which
has supported these efforts and served as the "role
models" of WSPs, getting us to a tipping point with
the Network where, hopefully, others in the region will
take on that role. Fortunately, a number of Core Group members
are within the Region and have been useful in establishing
ownership of the Network there.
ADERASA
signed an agreement to cooperate with the world’s
most important regulation institutions.
The
Association of Drinking-water and Sanitation of the Americas
(ADERASA) signed a Cooperation Agreement with the world’s
most important institutions that work on the regulation
of drinking-water and drainage system during the “1st
International Forum on Regulation of Water Services and
Sustainability” in Rome, January 2009.
This
agreement’s main goal is to create a cooperation program
concerning regulation, exchanging information and technical
assistance to improve the know-how, share experiences and
strengthen the regulation practice in the world.
For
further information on this event visit: www.aderasa.org/docs
It is important to emphasize as well that during the V World
Water Forum, ADERASA acknowledged the sustainable management
of hydrographical basins as essential in guaranteeing the
production and regulation of water for different purposes
while contributing to the climatic change adaptation process
as one of the water storage’s greatest threats in
the future.
Workshop on Tariff and Pricing Towards Sustainable
Water Services
A
workshop on tariff and pricing was jointly organized by
IWA, the Japan Waterworks Association (JWWA) and the Tokyo
Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau (TMWB) on 2-3 Feb 2009 at
the Training and Technical Development Centre in Tokyo,
Japan. This workshop brought together some eminent experts
on water tariff and pricing from across the globe.
Major learning points from this workshop include:
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