Links and data | ||
 | Fifth Ministerial Conference on environment and health | |
| Ensuring safe water and adequate sanitation to prevent and reduce child morbidity and mortality is one of the four priorities for the European Region and is one of the main topics of the Conference, to be held in Parma, Italy, 10-12 March 2010 | ||
| Indicator-based assessments on water and sanitation [external link] | |
| Four indicators help monitoring the health effects of water pollution towards the achievement of Regional Priority Goal 1 on safe water and adequate sanitation, set by the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in 2004 | ||
| Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE) | |
| Regional Priority Goal 1 of CEHAPE is about ensuring safe water and adequate sanitation to prevent and reduce child morbidity and mortality | ||
| Study on environmental burden of disease in children: key findings [pdf, 195KB] | |
| Fact Sheet EURO/05/04 18 June 2004 Unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene are among the major environmental risk factors for children in the European Region | ||
| Chart: mortality from diarrhoea in the WHO European Region in children aged 5 years or less | |
 Time trend 1987-2000 by subregion | ||
The highest incidence rate of infectious diseases caused by poor drinking water quality is often found in children aged 6-11 months, a vulnerable time in a child's life.In this period, water and weaning foods are introduced in the diet, levels of maternal antibodies begin to decline and the child's immune system is developing, crawling develops and foreign objects are introduced in the mouth.
Potential long-term developments also raise concern, such as extreme weather events, increasing water scarcity and water stress in many countries and regions, and extended exposures to chemical mixtures in water sources and ultimately in drinking-water. Their effects may have significant impact on the life of today's children well into their adulthood.
Current monitoring systems do not allow the differentiation of the disease burden between infants and children, but indicate a high mortality from diarrhoeal diseases, especially in the eastern part of the WHO European Region.
Estimates of the burden of diarrhoeal disease attributable to water, sanitation and hygiene in the European Region for children 0-14 years of age amount to over 13,000 deaths (5.3% of all deaths in the 0-14 age group), mostly coming from countries of eastern and south-eastern Europe and central Asia. The potential for health savings by the development of infrastructures and better personal hygiene is high: for instance, in these countries, giving the entire child population access to a regulated water supply and full sanitation coverage, with partial treatment for sewage, would save about 3700 lives.
WHO/Europe assists its Member States in improving water monitoring and surveillance systems by supporting the implementation of two main Regional committments:
They were adopted by European Ministers respectively in 1999 and 2004 at the Third and Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health. Both contribute to the achievement of the water-related Millennium Development Goals and targets at European level.
Within CEHAPE, one of the four Regional Priority Goals to improve children's health specifically concerns ensuring safe water and adequate sanitation to prevent and reduce child morbidity and mortality. The Protocol on Water and Health is the main tool to support the implementation of CEHAPE.
