ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATIONREGIONAL OFFICE FOR EUROPE

Extreme Weather Events, Water and Health

5th Meeting of theWorking Group on Water and Health

Geneva, 5 – 7 December 2005

Source: "EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database www.em-dat.net - Université Catholique de Louvain - Brussels - Belgium

Number of people killed in all water related extreme events/disasters in the European Region,

1970 - 2005

000012235617222425273131364150525757647282

138143159179190

264390

712931

10621200

12691805

20762154

3036

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

DenmarkFinland

LuxemburgTurkmenistan

Norw ayBelarusGeorgiaIreland

ArmeniaBosnia-Hercegovina

Serbia MontenegroBulgariaSw eden

UzbekistanAzerbaijan

IsraelUkraine

LatviaCroatiaIceland

LithuaniaCyprus

Modova RepSlovakia (w ithout

Czech Republic+CzechoslovakiaSw itzerland

AustriaAlbaniaBelgium

Macedonia FRY and YugoslaviaGreece

KyrgyzstanHungaryRomania

PolandSpain

NetherlandsTurkey

TajikistanUnited Kingdom

PortugalRussia (and Soviet Union)

GermanyFrance

Italy

number of people killed in all water relatedevents/disasters 1970-2005

2045115414

5330

The relationship between regional weather changes, exposures and health

outcomes

cCASHh, Summary for Policy Makers, 2005

Prevention of health effects of extreme weather events

Adaptation in other sectors and sytems Health sytem adaptation

From disaster response to risk management Risk assessment Weather warning systems for early public health action Rapid detection of impacts International coordination Risk communication Research

What do we propose?

Setting up an expert group to :

Support the scientific communities and decision-makers;

Identify the main concerns; Identify preventive measures to be

strengthened; Assist in development of targets and

implementation of effective measures; Interim results.

MP.WAT/WG.4/2005/7EUR/05/5047554/7

From disaster responseto risk management

Risk assessment

Weather warning systemsfor early public health action

Rapid detection of impacts

Internationalcoordination

Risk communication

Research

The Working Group

• Protocol on Water and Health, Article 8, 12 and 13:

Surveilllance and early warning • Guidelines on Sustainable Flood Protection:

Control and reduce health impacts • Seminar on Flood Prevention, Protection and Mitigation:

Capacity building and policy guidance

Based on:

Set up, under the existing work plan, an expert

group on extreme weather events, water and health;

Invite countries to lead and contribute to the

work of the expert group.

The Working Group may wish to:

GCH unit of WHO/Euro

Bettina Mennebme@ecr.who.euro.int

Franziska Matthiesevm@ecr.who.euro.int

Tanja Wolftwo@ecr.who.euro.int

Christian Schweizercsc@ecr.who.euro.int

http://www.euro.who.int/globalchange