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Environmental Health Officers Association mark World Water Day

Promoting child survival through water, sanitation and hygiene

Date: Saturday, March 21st 2009

Location: Irish Aid Volunteering & Information Centre, 27 -31 Upper O’Connell Street, Dublin 1.

The Environmental Health Officers Association is delighted to be jointly hosting this event with the Irish Forum for Global Health, UNICEF Ireland and the Irish Aid.

This one day conference entitled “Promoting child survival through water, sanitation and hygiene” will fittingly mark World Water Day and is aimed at highlighting recent developments in the contribution of water and sanitation to child survival and the Millennium Development Goals.

International World Water Day is held annually as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating the 22nd March 1993 as the first World Water Day. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater.

Water is essential for life. Yet many millions of people around the world face water shortages and a daily struggle to secure safe water for their basic needs. Millions of children continue to die every year from preventable water-borne diseases. Water-related natural disasters such as floods, tropical storms and tsunamis exact a heavy toll in human life and suffering. And all too regularly, drought afflicts some of the poorest countries, exacerbating hunger and malnutrition.

In the past decade, significant progress has been made in providing people with access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation. But a major effort is still required in the decade ahead to extend these essential services to those still unserved, the vast majority of whom are poor people.

Meeting the water and sanitation targets set by the international community for 2015 is a crucial step towards the ultimate goal of providing safe drinking water and adequate sanitation to all.

The conference itinerary will include speakers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, WaterAid, UNICEF and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Topics to be addressed include Hygiene promotion and Sanitization.

http://www.unicef.ie/userfiles/File/Water_Day_Conference.pdf