30 September 2010

Water and health: where science meets policy conference


This conference will bring together individuals and experts from academia, industry, NGOs, government and foundations to provide an inter-disciplinary perspective spanning science, policy, practice, financing and economics on drinking water sanitation, hygiene and water resources with a strong public health emphasis. The conference will deal with critical concerns relevant to both the developing and developed worlds.

The UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) will be presented at the conference. “This will be the first public event at which such discussion is encouraged and organized and provides a means to both present the report to an expert audience and to secure feedback and comment on it.”

Organised by: Water Institute and Institute for the Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Alongwith having Pete Kolsky, Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist, World Bank (with whom I did my medical school elective looking at surface water drainage in low-income countries when he was at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) there is also a Networking Weekend Event on Health Impact Assessment - Principles and Practice.





For those interested in Water Management and HIA check out the book below:



Health Impact Assessment for Sustainable Water Management 
"It is a pioneering international text, exploring and developing this emerging discipline. It is the first to take an international perspective seeking to draw generic lessons from both the developed and developing nations' experience in this new area of activity. The approach is being applied in policy development to strengthen the 'evidence-base' and across a wide spectrum of resource developments, industrial and urban infrastructure projects and in 'aid' projects in developing countries. 

This book illustrates the importance of considering health in water management developments and demonstrates the role of health impact assessment (HIA) in this process. Case-studies illustrate a range of management approaches to different system implementation issues and scale factors, ranging from domestic rainwater harvesting for the supply of non-potable water to a large-scale hydroelectric project. The concept, objectives, terminology and challenges of HIA are introduced and illustrated by case studies including rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse, sustainable drainage and evaluations of the health impacts of flooding.Developing country case studies include a small-scale irrigation project in Zimbabwe, a large hydro-electric scheme in Lao (Peoples Democratic Republic) and the implementation issues surrounding the use of domestic wastewater as a resource in demand by agricultural enterprises in Pakistan. 

The case studies illustrate different HIA approaches, including the use of quantitative and qualitative information and provide benchmarks of current practice for practitioners seeking to apply HIA in the emerging agendas in both developed and developing nations. The critical appraisals within each chapter offer both best practice exemplars as well as explanations of problems and mistakes of past project implementation, and define the requirements for the policy communities who will be increasingly required to accommodate HIA information in resource allocation decisions. As a result, this book will be of interest to planners, developers, policy makers, public health, environmental and water utility scientists and practitioners."

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