Taking policy action to improve small-scale water supply and sanitation systems: tools and good practices from the pan-European region

ABSTRACT

Access to adequate water and sanitation services is essential for good individual and population health. People served by small-scale systems in rural areas and small towns have the right to the same level of health protection as others. Goals 3 and 6 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development call for combating of waterborne diseases and for ensuring universal and equitable access to both safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation for all by 2030. To achieve universal access, due attention needs to be paid to the particularities and challenges that may impair the provision of safe and sustainable services by small-scale water supply and sanitation systems. Improving the situation of such systems is a priority area under the Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. This publication was developed under the Protocol; it aims to support effective policy action and promote good practices for creating an enabling environment in which to improve the situation of small-scale systems. It introduces a variety of tools that are available to policy-makers and highlights how these can be tailored to the particularities of small-scale systems. It also presents a number of case studies that illustrate how countries have taken the initiative to improve the situation of small systems.