First meeting of the parties to the Protocol on water and health

The first meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on Water and Health to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes was held on 17—19 January 2007 at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Protocol entered into force in August 2005 and to date has been ratified by 20 countries. The main aim of the Protocol is to provide safe water for all in Europe by better water sector management, water ecosystems protection, and by preventing, controlling and reducing water-related diseases.

The meeting of the Parties was organized by UNECE and the WHO Regional Office for Europe which are jointly servicing the Protocol. Representatives of 33 states, European Commission, international organizations, UN/ECE Secretariat, EEA, NGOs and PS companies and others participated in the MOP-1. Anna Tsvetkova (MAMA-86; Coordinator of ECO-Forum’s Water Issue Group) and Sergey Vykhryst (lawyer, expert and representative of ECO-Forum in Legal Board of the Water Convention) represented the European ECO-Forum. At MOP-1, the European ECO-Forum delivered the NGOs’ Statement.

The Meeting of the Parties elected a Chairperson — Ms. Lucia Varga, State Secretary of Environment and Water Management of Romania, who will lead the Protocol process. Romania will host the MOP-2 in 3 years.

At MOP-1, the Parties adopted several decisions:

• The rules of procedure (ECE/MP.WH/2007/1 EUR/06/5069385/7 were adopted with the deletion of paragraph 3 of rule 20 due to the forces of Germany, UK and Switzerland (para is about participation of NGOs as a observer at Bureau meeting).
• MOP elected the Bureau — 6 members, Chair from Romania plus representatives of the Parties: Ukraine, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Hungary.
• Compliance procedure under the Protocol on Water and Health (ECE/MP.WH/2007/L.2 EUR/06/5069385/13) was adopted. MOP-1 elected 9 members of the compliance committee nominated the independent experts by the Parties. Among them there are 3 NGOs representatives!!!: Diana Iskreva-Indigo, NGO “Earth forever”, Bulgaria, nominated by Switzerland; Sergey Vykhryst, ECO-Forum expert — by Hungary; and representative from French NGO, nominated by France at the meeting. Taking into account the conflict of interest the nomination of Focal Point from Moldova was cancelled by the country.
• A decision on mainstreaming activities and priorities of work into the policymaking of WHO-EURO (ECE/MP.WH/2007/L.1 EUR/06/5069385/8) was adopted.
• Programme of work for 2007—2009 (ECE/MP.WH/2007/2 EUR/06/5069385/9) was developed and adopted. ECO-Forum proposals’ on public information and education strengthening is reflected in Programme area 1: Implementations, 1.4 Public awareness, education, training, research and development and information (lead Party — Romania has to be confirmed; participating countries — all interested Parties; among the main partners are relevant NGOs).
• The MOP considered and adopted a decision on the designation of focal points for the Protocol and their responsibilities (ECE/MP.WH/2007/L.4 EUR/06/5069385/15).
• The MOP discussed the opportunity of opening the Protocol to countries outside the UNECE region. Due to the limits of time and the procedure difficulties the amendment did not prepare. Hungary and Switzerland expressed the readiness to prepare proposal to amend the Protocol and asked for support of the Joint secretariat.
• The MOP agreed on (a) the preparation of draft guidelines on reporting, for consideration at the MOP-2; and (b) the preparation by end of 2008 of an interim report on water supply and sanitation issues, based on these draft guidelines.
• It was adopted the establishment of an Ad Hoc Project Facilitation Mechanism (PFM) (Initiative of Norway) to support national action to the improved formulation of projects, in order to facilitate access to sources of finance. In the context of this initiative Finland presented the draft of the first project proposals “Strengthening Water and Health in the EECCA countries”, which will be implemented with using of PFM.
• In context of the item “Financial arrangements” MOP it was decided to establish two trust funds under the Protocol (ECE/MP.WH/2007/L.5 EUR/06/5069385/16).
• The declaration of the first Meeting of the Parties was adopted (ECE/MP.WH/2007/L.6  EUR/06/5069385/18). Due to the efforts of ECO-Forum the para on water as a basic human right was incorporated into the Declaration in context of evaluation of the Round Table “The Human Right to Water and the Protocol on Water and Health: making access to water a reality”. It took place on 18th January in the framework of the MOP-1. Anna Tsvetkova was one of the panellists and made an intervention on the role of NGOs in improving access to safe water in EECCA.

The following Reports and documents were presented at the MOP-1 (can be downloaded from the secretariat website at http://www.unece.org/env/water/welcome.html):

• on the status of Protocol implementation;
• on the progress on countries’ progress towards establishing targets and target dates;
• on implementation of the workplan for 2004—2006 under the Water Convention (ECE/MP.WAT/2006/2);
• on MOP-4 to the Water Convention (Bonn, 20—22 November 2006);
• 6th Meeting of WG on W&H;
• on activities of relevance under the WHO-EURO of relevance to the Protocol;
• on progress under the European Health and Environment process, in particular under the CEHAPE;
• on preparation to the Belgrad EfE Conference;
• on the use of existing database and reporting mechanisms in support to the requirements of the Protocol;
• strengthening response systems, including assessment and improvement of national and/or local surveillance, outbreak detection and early warning systems (Surveillance of water related diseases ECE/MP.WH/2007/5 EUR/06/5069385/12).

For more information contact:
Anna Tsvetkova
MAMA-86
Coordinator of Water Issue Group at European ECO-Forum
E-mail: