Fourth meeting of the International Small Community Water Supply Network
The fourth meeting of the International Network was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, from 8-11 October 2007, hosted by the Scottish Drinking Water Quality Regulator with support from the Drinking Water Inspectorate for England and Wales and sponsorship from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Royal Institute of Public Health, and the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland.
The meeting in Edinburgh was designed to further the work undertaken by the Network through a review and validation of the progress achieved on current work stream activities and the identification of additional work stream activities and next steps. The main focus was on issues in Europe but attendees were from developed and developing countries from around the world.
The purpose of the Network was reaffirmed to be the promotion of the achievement of substantive and sustainable improvements to the safety of small community water supplies around the world, particularly in rural areas, in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals related to drinking water and sanitation. The outcomes to which the Network is working to achieve were refined to be:
- Facilitate communication, to support the building of an evidence-base and the development of a policy framework and associated tools
- Build an evidence-base, to support the development of a policy framework and associated tools and political advocacy
- Develop a policy framework and associated tools and guidance documents, to build capacity at all levels from international to community
- Advocate for improvements to the management of small community water supplies at all levels