Users can click on the topic which interests them to read a short overview article, with references and links to web-based source material. For example, clicking on School Sanitation will take the user in three clicks to a key UNICEF resource on sanitation for schools. In time, users will also be able to view pages of regional information so that they can link up with other initiatives in their area. In the first phase, the primary language will be English but it is intended to include other languages as the resource develops.

Each set of theme pages is managed by organizations with an international standing in the particular subject. Sanitation Connection is a cooperative effort of the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the International Water Association (IWA). These organizations will ensure that pages are kept up-to-date and develop a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs).

A Help Desk has been established. Among other activities, it will send printed copies of any materials requested to enquirers. For those without access to the Internet, further information on Sanicon is available from The Water And Sanitation for Health (WSH) Unit at WHO.

The partnership of international organizations leading the Sanitation Connection initiative is also a first. The organizations all share a desire to improve sanitation worldwide. UNEP developed the concept of a web-based network as part of its Global Programme of Action to reduce land-based pollution of the marine environment. WHO’s mandate is to reduce water-related disease, of which effective sanitation – above all for the world’s poor - is a key element. The WSSCC was established in 1990, at the end of the Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, to maintain the momentum of the decade. It launched an important contribution to the need for better exchange of information on sanitation: GESI – the Global Environmental Sanitation Initiative. The IWA, an independent self-funded member association, promotes best practice in all aspects of water resource management. It hopes that its members will both contribute to and benefit from Sanitation Connection.

Financial support for the development of Sanitation Connection has been received from the international development department of the British Government, DfID, through the Global Water Partnership, UNEP, WHO and the WSSCC.

NOTE FOR JOURNALISTS

Also launched at the Fifth Global Forum of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council was the WHO-UNICEF Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000, providing the most reliable statistics yet on access to sanitation services. The Assessment showed how 2,400 million people still do not have access to any acceptable means of sanitation and that the modest target of halving this number by 2015 means delivering improved services for 397,000 every day – which would mean raising the pace of improvement by 85% compared to progress in the 1990s. The wider findings of the Assessment reinforce the urgent priority of extending sanitation coverage and hygiene education, identified in the "Framework for Action" at the March 2000 World Water Forum in the Hague.

Sanitation Connection is one important response to this challenge. It will also help raise awareness of a problem which is fast becoming a major concern for environmental health and water and sanitation experts worldwide: sewage discharge.

Wastewater discharges are considered one of the most significant threats to sustainable coastal developments worldwide. The priority for action on "sewage" was identified by the UNEP/ Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) in 1995. UNEP/GPA developed, in cooperation with WHO, Habitat and the WSSCC, a Strategic Action Plan aimed at supporting the efforts of States to address the serious public health problems and the degradation of coastal ecosystems that result from the disposal in coastal areas of inadequately treated municipal wastewater. It does so through, amongst others, the development of Recommendations for Decision-Making and associated Knowledge Base in the form of a clearing-house; and the holding of regional meetings - including partnership meetings - and global conferences. Sanitation Connection is expected to be an important tool in developing, agreeing and implementing the Strategic Action Plan.