The WYN attended an event with the SWA Partnership and the Dutch WASH Sector

Event Meet & Greet Dutch WASH sector and SWA Partnership

The UN Secretary General has officially shown his support to the Open Working Group’s recommendations for the SDG, including a specific SDG focused on water and sanitation. These are very good news for the global water sector. Yet, a lot remains to be done in the race for achieving universal access to water and sanitation. Specific concerns have been raised around the need for SDGs to acknowledge the provision of safe water and sanitation facilities in non domestic spaces as schools, health centers or the work place as crucial to achieve universal access to water and sanitation. For this reason, on December 4th SIMAVI and IRC hosted an event in The Hague aiming at fostering informal discussions between the Dutch WASH sectors and the Steering Committee of the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Partnership.

Special guests at the event were Catarina de Albuquerque, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and Dutch national soccer player Aron Winter.

The Water Youth Network was present at the event and had the opportunity to lean on first-hand about the efforts that organizations as IRC, SIMAVI, the Royal Dutch Football Association, PeePoople or WBCSD are doing to improve the sanitation conditions in schools, hospitals or factories. You can watch their presentations here.

We enjoyed this opportunity to learn more about sanitation challenges and to interact with other young and senior professionals dedicated to achieving safe water and sanitation for all!