The First Workshop on Water Safety Plans will be held in Dushanbe on August 13, according to the Water Supply and Sanitation (TajWSS) Project

The event is organized by Oxfam Tajikistan and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of Tajikistan.

The workshop is aimed at further increasing awareness and support among national stakeholders in health, environment and water sectors, international and nongovernmental organizations to appreciate the value of the Water Safety Plan (WSP) approach.  It will also support the development of a longer term vision and national roadmap towards WSP scale-up in Tajikistan.

The WSP approach is recommended by the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality as the most effective way of ensuring provision of safe drinking-water, especially in rural areas.  The WSP approach’s emphasis is on holistic risk management from catchment to consumer and the prevention of waterborne diseases.  It emphasizes on step by step actions to be undertaken by communities, local authorities and other stakeholders to strengthen their efforts towards identification of risks to public health, effective operation and maintenance of drinking-water supply systems and development of incremental improvement plans.

Policy development towards WSP uptake in the Republic of Tajikistan, particularly for small-scale water supplies in rural areas, is the main topic to be discussed during the workshop, including presentations from the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, Oxfam, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and UNDP.  The workshop will also share experiences of past WSP pilot projects, implemented by WHO in two rural villages of Hamadoni and Panjakent districts, describing the results of sustainable management and implementation of the WSP approach in rural Tajikistan.

The half-day workshop will be attended by the high level representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, the Committee of Environmental Protection, the Committee of Architecture and Construction, the state-drinking water providers SUE “Khojagii Manziliyu Kommunali” and SUE “Dushanbe Vodokanal”, as well as representatives of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), World Bank, European Commission, Japan International Cooperation Agency and other international organizations.

The workshop is organized with financial support of SDC within the framework of Oxfam’s Tajikistan Water Supply and Sanitation Project (TajWSS) as well as WHO country office in Tajikistan.