Progress and challenges on water and health: the role of the Protocol on Water and Health
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World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe
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viii, 20 p.
Among the main achievements of the European Environment and Health Process is the adoption, at the Third Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health (London, 1999), and subsequent entry into force of the Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. Universal access to safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation remains unrealized in many countries in the European Region. Infant mortality and morbidity from water-related diseases are declining, but significant subregional inequality remains. The impact of climate change poses new challenges to water resource managers, water supply systems and sanitation networks, as well as to the health sector. The Protocol is the first international legally binding treaty designed to ensure, by linking integrated water management and health issues, the adequate supply of safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation for all. It is playing a crucial role in reducing the heavy burden of water-related diseases that people in the pan-European region have to face. This paper demonstrates the continued relevance and role of the Protocol on Water and Health to the environment and health process in the European Region. It also aims to indicate to environment and health ministers the main challenges and the way ahead in addressing these challenges within the framework of both the European Environment and Health Process and the Protocol on Water and Health. This document was tabled as a background document during the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, Parma, Italy, 10–12 March 2010.
Among the main achievements of the European Environment and Health Process is the adoption, at the Third Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health (London, 1999), and subsequent entry into force of the Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. Universal access to safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation remains unrealized in many countries in the European Region. Infant mortality and morbidity from water-related diseases are declining, but significant subregional inequality remains. The impact of climate change poses new challenges to water resource managers, water supply systems and sanitation networks, as well as to the health sector. The Protocol is the first international legally binding treaty designed to ensure, by linking integrated water management and health issues, the adequate supply of safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation for all. It is playing a crucial role in reducing the heavy burden of water-related diseases that people in the pan-European region have to face. This paper demonstrates the continued relevance and role of the Protocol on Water and Health to the environment and health process in the European Region. It also aims to indicate to environment and health ministers the main challenges and the way ahead in addressing these challenges within the framework of both the European Environment and Health Process and the Protocol on Water and Health. This document was tabled as a background document during the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, Parma, Italy, 10–12 March 2010.