“Health facilities are where vulnerable people seek healing. Yet without adequate water, sanitation and hygiene, for too many people, expected care can turn into unintended harm,” said Dr Hans Kluge, World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Europe.
Stressing that health care is “put to the test like never before,” Dr. Kluge insisted that strengthening it is an investment in resisting crises.
As part of that work, a UN-led meeting this week in Budapest saw more than 40 countries adopt an agenda to build more resilient and equitable water, sanitation and hygiene systems, often collectively referred to as WASH.
The 7th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on Water and Health is co-led by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the United Nations health agency.
The Protocol on Water and Health remains the only legally binding international treaty explicitly linking environmental protection, water governance and public health. It has helped countries translate their commitments into concrete improvements, such as expanding clean water, protecting biodiversity and strengthening disease surveillance.
Yet major challenges remain. In addition to the 118 million people in Europe whose health facilities do not have basic sanitation, 70 million people do not have access to safely managed drinking water and 185 million do not have safe sanitation. These vulnerabilities are only getting worse as droughts, floods and cyber threats increasingly disrupt services.
“The Protocol is an example of the impact of multilateral cooperation on our daily lives, but we still have much work to do,” said UNECE Executive Secretary Tatiana Molcean.
Practical tools, global relevance
The Protocol provides a toolkit of evidence-based resources, such as an equitable access dashboard and water security planning, already in use in more than 30 countries. The international agreement has supported at least 1,500 facility assessments and helped inform policies in schools, hospitals and urban planning.
Countries in the pan-European region are committed to ensuring access to safe drinking water and sanitation for all, through commitments such as the Budapest Declaration and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “but no one tells you how to do it. This is what the Protocol has to offer. underlined Marta Vargha, vice-president of the Protocol.
Concrete measures taken under the Protocol include efforts to ensure the provision of safe drinking water, sanitation and menstrual hygiene in schools; monitor wastewater for dangerous viruses, including COVID-19; combat the spread of Legionella bacteria in domestic water systems and develop plans for carbon-neutral water services.
On the eve of the UN climate summit in Brazil, UNECE urged governments to place water and sanitation systems at the heart of climate resilience – a message highlighted by Secretary-General António Guterres in a message to the meeting: “Progress on water and sanitation supports progress on several Sustainable Development Goals. »
