The WHO Regional Office for Europe and NGO “MAMA-86” in the framework of World Water Day 2011 carried out a workshop on Water Safety Plans (WSPs) as an instrument to guarantee the Right to Water for urban customers on April 12.

The focus of World Water Day 2011 Water for Cities had drawn the attention of decision-makers, water and health specialists to the challenges of water supply and sanitation in the urban environment. This is particularly important for the European region where cities often show a high level of access, but a low level of service quality.

The World Health Organization recommends a holistic approach “from source to tap” in ensuring safe water. This approach has been termed a Water Safety Plan (WSP).

The Protocol on Water and Health, ratified by Ukraine in 2003, obliges countries to set targets, and monitor progress towards these targets. WSPs have been identified as valuable targets by the Task Force on Indicators and Reporting. Ukraine did not indicate use of WSP instrument yet in the first National Report on Protocol implementation progress.

The purpose of the Workshop was to bring together an audience of national experts from the Ukrainian Water Utilities Association and the Ministry of Health / Sanitary and Epidemiological Service and experts from the European Federation of National Associations of Water and Wastewater Services to exchange experiences on practical implementation of WSPs under a variety of conditions.

MAMA-86 put the discussion on WSPs in the broader framework of the realization of the Global Water Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) campaign undertaken with the support of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).

Due to active informational support of the Workshop by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and Ministry of Building and Communal Housing of Ukraine 75 Ukrainian hygienists, water supply and sanitation professionals and other stakeholders took part in the workshop, among which were 32 representatives from oblast, rayon and cities Sanitary-Epidemiological Authorities of Ukraine, Central and regional Sanitary-Epidemiological Service on the railway, 13 – from Water Utilities (Vodocanals), 28 – from governmental authorities, associations, that work in water and sanitation, additional water purification technologies, scientific and educational institutions from 20 cities and 12 oblasts of Ukraine.

Welcoming remarks to participants addressed: Yuri Kashpirenko from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Alexander Popov on behalf of the Association “Ukrvodokanalekolohiya”, Anna Tsvetkova, on behalf of the WSSCC and NGO “MAMA-86”.

Participants of the seminar were welcomed by the President of the European Federation of Water utilities (EUREAU) Klara Szatkiewicz. Ms. Szatkiewicz made a keynote address about Water Safety Plans (WSP). Her colleagues, EUREAU experts, representatives of three leading European water companies presented an experience of implementation of WSP. Charlotte Frambol from the Danish Water and Wastewater Association made a presentation “Risk analysis & risk management to tackle new risks”, Jordi Martin Alonso presented Aguas de Barcelona experience in “WSP – ISO 22000 implementation in the Barcelona’s water supply”, Severine Jacob shared experience of WSP implementation for small systems of water supply (presentation “Microbial risk assessment in small supplies”). Representative of the WHO Regional Office for Europe Roger Aertgeerts presented “A road map for WSP implementation” and Water Safety Plan Manual.

Anna Tsvetkova, NGO “MAMA-86” and WSSCC, in her presentation highlighted “The basic human right to water and sanitation” (ukr).

During the seminar participants from Ukraine were able to not only learn about the European approaches to the risk assessment methodologies and development of WSP, but also introduce their own experience of solving problems to improve drinking water quality. Kostyantyn Zagorodnyuk from the O.O. Bogomolet’s Kyiv National Medical University presented “Complex hygienic assessment of water purification utilities in the Dnipro river basin in order to determine their potential to clean water according to the new State norms and rules on drinking water (DSaNPin 2.2.4-171-10)” (ukr). Yurii Zagorodnyk from the Fund of water purification technologies development of Ukraine made a presentation “Application of Fe-containing coagulant on water treatment plants in basins of rivers Dnieper and Siverskyi Donets to decrease Cl-organic byproducts contamination of drinking water” (ukr). Olexander Polubot’ko from Nikopolvodokanal shared the company experience of solving problems of drinking water quality and suggested the concept of public drinking water supply of the population of Ukraine.

Andrii Mokienko concluded the workshop program by presenting “Experience of implementation of efficient water disinfection technologies in water supply infrastructure in Ukraine.” (ukr)

Summarizing the results of the workshop, Ukrainian experts expressed their wish to continue to learn approaches and methods of implementation of WSP. For further work on WSP it is necessary to have Ukrainian translation of the guidelines and recommendations on the subject developed by WHO. An interest for pilot projects on WSP implementation in Ukraine has been expressed also by the participants.

Photos of the workshop you can see in our gallery