The challenge of disaster reduction for the water and sanitation sector: Improving quality of life by reducing vulnerabilities

This new publication —a joint effort of PAHO, UNICEF, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)— was introduced during the Fourth World Water Forum, held in Mexico, in March, 2006, in order to draw attention to the need of ensuring that water and sanitation systems remain operational in the aftermath of natural disasters. This is a critical aspect to be taken into consideration if countries do not want to counteract the achievements made in the increase of access to these services. In addition, this will help countries meet, by the year 2015, the target of reducing, by half, the proportion of people without access to drinking water and basic sanitation services.

Risk management is a useful tool to overcome the global challenges of providing water and sanitation services for all people at all times. A limited number of copies of this publication may be requested from CRID, or the PDF file can be downloaded from their website:
http://www.crid.or.cr/digitalizacion/pdf/spa/doc16419/doc16419.htm