FOURTEENTH MEETING OF THE WORKING GROUP ON WATER AND HEALTH
The 14th meeting of the Working Group on Water and Health was held on 16-17 April 2024 in Geneva. The meeting was organized by UNECE and the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Mrs Zulfiya Yarullina took part in the meeting on behalf of SIC ICWC.
The main objectives were to review the implementation of the Protocol’s program of work for the period 2023-2025 and provide guidance on its further development, while giving consideration to the financial and human resource situation. The Working Group also discussed how to benefit from the Protocol’s practical framework to facilitate progress in the implementation of the water, sanitation, hygiene and health-related Sustainable Development Goals in the pan-European region.
The welcome and congratulation ceremony took place for the two new Parties – North Macedonia and Uzbekistan – that have joined the Protocol since the sixth session of the Meeting of the Parties (Geneva, 16?18 November 2022). Representatives of the Republic of Uzbekistan and North Macedonia were invited to the Presidium, where they shared the main objectives on water, sanitation and health and relevant commitments of their respective countries.
As of 31 January 2024, the following 29 countries are Parties to the Protocol on Water and Health: Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The Working Group was familiarized with the tasks and events planned as part of the work program for the current 2024 and the next 2025. The parties discussed how to benefit from and give prominence to the work under the Protocol with regard to the implementation, follow-up and review of global and regional commitments in the areas of water, environment, sanitation, hygiene and health, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the outcomes of and follow-up to the United Nations 2023 Water Conference (New York, 22–24 March 2023), the Declaration of the Seventh Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health (Budapest Declaration) and other relevant global and regional environmental and health commitments.
Also, during the meeting the Parties presented information on:
- prevention and reduction of water-related diseases;
- water, sanitation and hygiene in institutional settings and public places;
- small-scale water supplies and sanitation;
- long-term vision and strategy for implementation of the Protocol on
- Water and Health;
- safe management of water supply and sanitation systems;
- equitable access to water and sanitation;
- increasing resilience to climate change.
In the course of informal communications between representatives of Uzbekistan and UNECE specialists, the work plan and further steps of Uzbekistan in the light of the initiated country project presented on March 14 this year in Tashkent on the development of targets under the Protocol were discussed.
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