DUSHANBE, September 24, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Next meeting of the Network of Stakeholder Organizations on Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation (TajWSS) is being held in Dushanbe today. 

This regular 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).

According to TajWSS Project, the agenda of the 22nd TajWSS Network meeting includes presentations and updates from its members about activities and relevant issues in drinking water and sanitation subsector.

The Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan will make a presentation about the outcomes of Central Asian Sub-regional Preparatory Conference for the 7th World Water Forum, held in Dushanbe on July 8-9 2014.  Presentation will include points like harmonization of a sub-regional position for the priority themes of the 7th World Water Forum, formulation of agreed goals on selected themes and list of the related actions, and a roadmap for actions on priority themes for the period after 2015.

New National Water Resources Management Project will be presented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, with focus on the main activities and expected outcomes of the project.  Overall goal of the project is to strengthen water resource and irrigation management at national, basin, canal and on-farm levels to increase water and food security and reduce water related disaster risks to improve livelihoods and raise socio-economic indicators in selected rural areas in Syr Darya River Basin in Tajikistan.

Guidelines on Disaster Risk Reduction in the sphere of rural water supply and sanitation will be presented by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to inform the audience about the problems and impacts of the water supply systems in the presence of the major hazards or natural hazards like floods, landslides and earthquakes.  The guidelines aims to help to reduce the risks that water and sanitation systems are exposed to, by defining the most context appropriate prevention and mitigation measures for each component of the system and will serve as a reference for the basic environmental sanitation projects that are formulated, implemented and operated in rural areas.

Consumers’ Union of Tajikistan will make a presentation about the latest activities and results achieved within GoAL WASH project – Implementing human rights based approach in water resources management. Overall goal of the project is to elaborate and introduce the approaches of good governance through improved practices and mechanisms of consumer’s rights protection in drinking water supply service provision.

Besides, the latest results of activities of the Sanitation Working Group, which was established within the TajWSS Network, will be presented at the meeting.

Established on November 12, 2009, Network of Stakeholder Organizations on Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation aims 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.