DUSHANBE, April 16, 2014, Asia-Plus — The Network of Stakeholder Organizations on Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation (TajWSS) Meeting is being held in Dushanbe today.
This meeting of Stakeholder Organizations on Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation is organized by Oxfam in Tajikistan under financial support of the Government of Switzerland through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and its agenda includes presentations from the Network members about their activities and relevant issues in the subsector.
Main agenda points will be:
1) Wash Cluster in Tajikistan aims to provide access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation during emergency situations. It is considered to be critical as lack of safe water and poor sanitation in times of emergencies can cause infectious diseases outbreaks, especially among children. UNICEF as a Lead Agency in Tajikistan for the Wash Cluster and a Network member and will make a presentation about the latest updates from the cluster;
2) Water Safety Plans is a tool to ensure safety of drinking-water supplies through the use of a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach that encompasses all steps in water supply systems, from catchments to consumer. The presentation of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance under the Ministry of Health and Social protection will cover all the steps from the joint development of the plan and its introduction by governmental agencies and international organizations;
3) Cooperation is a key to success – joint activities of TajWSS Network members to mark the World Water Day 2014 is a proof of this statement. Ms. Surayo Shujoat, Media Consultant, will report about the initiative of the State Technical University students to clean Govkush Channel in Dushanbe, analysis of water quality in three water intakes of Dushanbe’s aqueduct, a series of informational and educational activities among primary school pupils on the need for rational use of water and personal hygiene and a competition for the best drawing, essay and handicrafts led by Oxfam and World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Education Departments of Roudaki and Muminobod Districts;
4) Establishment of two new working groups focusing on Sanitation and Gender. A number of international organizations put a lot of efforts in building sanitation infrastructure in the rural areas of Tajikistan. The objective of the working group will be to learn best practices and develop most sustainable models for the future work on sanitation both on the local and national levels. Gender deserve much more attention and it is planned to create a working group that will raise the issues of gender and water for the discussion and provide a number of recommendations on how to introduce and reflect them in the legislative, practical and operational papers.
Network of Stakeholder Organizations on Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation was created on November 12, 2009 aiming at bringing together all interested organizations including governmental structures of Tajikistan, international and local civil society organizations, private sector and media.
Today TajWSS Network provides a platform for more than 60 stakeholder organizations including Policymakers, Investors, Academics and Organizations of the Civic and International Societies. TajWSS supports the diverse stakeholders in rural drinking water to address sustainability and effectiveness of the Tajikistan rural WS&S sub-sector through sharing of best practices and implementation of innovative pilot projects. TajWSS Network brings the issue of developing rural water supply and sanitation to researchers and the results of researches to policymakers.
