Europe's Sanitation Problems on Agenda

According to Sascha Gabizon, International Director of WECF, in her opening speech at the seminar covering Europe's sanitation problems, the situation is worse than most people, especially Europeans, can imagine: "I visited a school which had puddles of urine all over the place. The children preferred to defecate out in the open, behind the school building. And the pit latrines are overflowing. Children in our region can still die of bad sanitation".  She concluded that safe sanitation was an issue of dignity, of human rights.

Sick people cannot work

Helmut Bloech of the European Commission agreed and said that the WECF seminar showed that we face a major problem in Europe: "Lack of sanitation is not only a health problem, it is affecting our competitiveness. Sick people cannot work and better sanitation makes people healthier and more productive. We have seen low cost solutions available that work, but it is also clear we have to ensure that this knowledge is being transferred from this audience to the people in the field. This can only be done in their language and with the participation of dozens of dozens and local councils".

Waste Water Directive

Especially in the new member states of the EU a great number of people are deprived of decent sanitation. Sascha Gabizon: "One of the reasons for this is that the EU directive on urban waste water treatments does not give an incentive to make rural sanitation a priority as it focuses on larger municipalities, funds seem to be aimed at larger cities and go to building water treatment plants. The money is not set aside for the most deprived. With 600 euro per household you would need 428 million till 2015, to provide all 20 million Europeans with safe sanitation. Even in the ideal situation, when the EU Waste Water Directive would be entirely implemented, still 20 million people would have to use open pit latrines. But safe sanitation should be a right for all Europeans.

No Wastewater

Sanitation should be a clear political target said Friedrich Barth, chair of the European Water Partnership. "Unfortunately the awareness is low and there is not much political will." One of the main problems, according to him is that current EU legislation was written by the EU 15 for the EU 15. And the needs and views of the people in the new member states were not appropriately taken into account.  Apart from that we need a shift of mindset in our thinking about wastewater. Friedrich Barth: "Waste is something you want to get rid of; we don't consider it to be valuable. I hope that with rising prices, people will consider closing the loops and re-use the ‘waste'. Local sanitation can create a market for this. When you create a huge wastewater problem in the Baltics like the Swedes you also have to look at other options we need to put these ends together. We are not talking about waste; we are talking about resource management!"

The seminar also showed, according to the speakers, that sanitation is not a specific East European problem. Sweden for instance has created a huge problem with its wastewater - even close to a scandal, according to Helmut Bloech.  Arno Rosemarin of the Stockholm environment Institute told that the need to think about sanitation is necessary all over Europe. "London's sewage collector system dates from the mid-1800's. During heavy rains the sewage system overflows and it all pours into the Thames. This only became alarming a couple of years ago, when the Olympic rowing team became sick after peddling the Thames.

Safe Toilets

The WECF seminar which was attended by HRH the Prince of Orange, in his function as chair of UNSGAB, showed why with current policies and practices, it seems impossible to provide safe sanitation for all citizens of the European Union. Representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, NGOs, leading scientists and representatives of governments debated on the barriers in legislation and markets for innovative decentralized wastewater technologies. Sascha Gabizon: "Giving everybody safe sanitation cannot fail from lack of money, as not more than EUR4.7 billion would be necessary to provide all 20 million people with a safe toilet, compared to the EU cohesion and structural fund budget of more than 330 billion is not that much. In the International Year of Sanitation 2008, we have to make "safe toilets for all" a priority issue: Europe needs a rural sanitation action plan!"