Tan Yong Soon, permanent secretary of Singapore’s environment ministry, and Weber-Mosdorf, The World Health Organization (WHO)’s assistant director general for sustainable development and healthy environments signed an agreement on August 8, 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden to jointly promote the safe management of drinking water around the world, reported on August 15, 2007.
Weber-Mosdorf, said, “It is our collective responsibility to address the devastating effects of declining water quality,” The city-state is an “exemplary model of integrated water management and WHO hopes to work closely with Singapore to share such expertise.”
Under the pact which runs until 2015, the WHO will work with Singapore to disseminate knowledge to developing states on the procedures for the safe use of wastewater, intra-urban water catchment management; the desalination and advanced treatment of waste and seawater for drinking.
More than 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water worldwide, WHO said. Every year more than 1.6 million people die because they lack access to safe water and sanitation.
