The benefits of sanitation - an issue that needs to be developed at international level

During the last World Water Forum in Mexico (March 2006), the session on sanitation provided the opportunity to present several case studies which aroused the interest of a number of cities. The discussion during the themed session led to an "International Sanitation Year" being announced.

The Seine-Normandy Water Agency has grasped this opportunity to co-organise an international workshop on urban sanitation.

The workshop will act as a forum for technical discussion and aims tu put out a strong political message on urban sanitation management.

The workshop will be held on 23rd and 24th June 2008 in Paris. Organised jointly by the Seine-Normandy Water Agency, The Greater Paris Interdepartemental Sanitation authorithy (SIAAP), the Ile-de-France Regional Council and ISKI (the Istanbul Metropolitan Water en Sewerage Administration), the workshop is seeking to widen the circle of initial contributors by inviting around ten cities from all over the world, as well as national and international organisations.

The workshop is aiming to offer a forum for cities to exchange upon good global water, aquatic environment and sanitation management practices. The end goal is to create a compendium of good practice and to see to what extent this can be transposed depending on individual local contexts.

While the content of the workshop is obviously of a technical nature, a number of political messages on good management should emanate from it, which can then be passed on to the international community, particularly by elected representatives.

What next ? Getting ready for Istanbul...

The workshop organisers have clearly staded their desire to have at least one session on sanitation at the World Istanbul forum in March 2009.

This initiative is supported by the World Water Council (joint organiser of the forum) and by the French Water Partnership which is actively working to prepare the french water stakeholders' contribution to the forum.

ISKI, itself a workshop partner, also wants the issue of sanitation to take up its rightful place in the international debates.