Experts and decision-makers from all over the world look for collective resolutions to reduce loss of drinking water

From 3 to 5 September 2008 a international workshop on "Drinking Water Loss Reduction - Developing Capacity for Applying Solutions" - organized within the scope of the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) and UN-Habitat - took place on the United Nation Campus in Bonn, Germany. The aim of the workshop was the exchange of approaches to reduce the loss of drinking water worldwide.

Experts and decision-makers from all over the world, who are confronted with the problem of drinking water loss in their home countries, as well as their counterparts from countries like Germany and other European countries were invited to join the workshop. Besides the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development as well as numerous German organisations such as DWA (German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste) and DVGW (German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stein & Partner GmbH also attended as a partner of the workshop.

The mere fact that every single day 45 million cubic metres of drinking water are lost in the world's water mains in most cases caused by leakage - an amount that would supply 200 million people every day - was reason enough for a dialogue among the participants. One of the targets of the Bonn workshop was to exchange experience and information about means of best-practice models run various national water programmes and about actions for improved water leakage control. Decision-makers from altogether 16 countries such as India, Mexico, Brazil, Uganda, Jordan, Palestine and Abu Dhabi, etc. attended the workshop.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stein & Partner GmbH, represented by their CEO Dr.-Ing. Robert Stein, presented the current development status of the web-based education portal UNITRACC (Underground Infrastructure Training and Competence Center) to the attendants. The range of functions and contents of the internet portal, but also the variety of learning media in the form of animations, virtual construction sites and simulations made a lasting impression on the participants. Thus, by means of information and teaching material which are made available on UNITRACC va the worldwide web, qualified staff can be trained and problems such as drinking water loss can be tackled sustainably.

To experience the possibilities of modern web-based learning, all participants of the international workshop were thus given the opportunity to enrol in an on-line training course on UNITRACC, which dealt with the entire range of methods for trenchless installation and rehabilitation of pipelines in the field of water supply and sewerage networks.

As a summary all participants of the UN-Water workshop again stressed that in order to achieve a fair and sustainable water supply worldwide, qualification and training of all market players who are in charge of planning, construction and operation of water supply networks were of vital importance.

About UN Water:
UN-Water is a mechanism of the United Nations, endorsed in 2003 for the follow-up process of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Its purpose is to support states in their water-related efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals.
Its focus lies on all fresh- and sea water issues as well as on sanitation. UN-Water aims at improving the cooperation between relevant governing bodies and development organizations. It is responsible for the annual World Water Day as well as for the UN Water decade.
The 24 members of UN-Water are UN agencies, programmes and funds that are to a measurable extent involved in water policies. These include, among others, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme.

About UNW-DPC:
The UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) hosted by UNU at UN Campus in Bonn, is a joint programme of UN Agencies and Programmes cooperating within the framework of UN-Water. The aim of the programme is to support and strengthen the activities of the more than two dozen UN organizations and programmes already cooperating within the interagency mechanism UN-Water, and thereby support their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to water. UNW-DPC is dedicated to capacity development in all water related issues including water supply and sanitation. The control of drinking water losses in distribution systems is part of its overall dedication. UNW-DPC is supported by the Federal Government of Germany, through the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

About UN-HABITAT: The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.


Further information:

UNW-DPC
United Nations University
UN Campus
Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10
53113 Bonn
Germany
Tel.: ++49 228 815 0652
Fax: ++49 228 815 0655
E-Mail: info@unwater.unu.edu
Web: www.unwater.unu.edu

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stein & Partner GmbH
Konrad-Zuse-Str. 6
44801 Bochum
Germany
Tel: ++49 234 5167 0
Fax: ++49 234 5167 109
Email: office@stein.de
Web: www.stein.de and www.unitracc.com