Announcement: Network Secretariat
Anthonj, Carmen
We hope you continue in good health.
Today we would like to follow up on the conversations the Network Secretariat has been having since the last Annual HWTS Network Meeting at the UNC Water and Health Conference in October 2019. Jointly with Dr. Batsi Majuru from the World Health Organization and with Millie Adam from the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, we agreed that CAWST will be joining the Water Institute at UNC in co-leading the Network. Please join us in warmly welcoming CAWST as a member of the HWTS Network Secretariat.
In our roles with the Network Secretariat, we - CAWST, the Water Institute, and WHO - are committed to:
- Promote the Network, its mission and its activities to a global audience to increase support for the Network, and ensure harmonization of these efforts with Network strategy and goals
- Disseminate the evidence base for HWTS and best practices in HWTS implementation, as part of a range of water service delivery models
The roles of our organizations are:
CAWST
- Lead network communications, engagement, and member relations
- Lead the development of a new online space for members
- Lead the communications system for the network – newsletter and feedback mechanisms
- Co-organize, in collaboration with Network Secretariat members, the Annual Network Meeting and other virtual or in-person meetings of the Network
The Water Institute at UNC
- Collaborate on dissemination of the evidence base for HWTS
- Collaborate on increasing network engagement
- Co-organize, in collaboration with the other Network Secretariat members, the Annual Network Meeting and other virtual or in-person meetings of the Network
WHO
- Advise the Network Secretariat on emerging evidence and trends related to HWTS and relevant content for network members
- Establish and disseminate norms on HWT technology performance, through the WHO International Scheme to Evaluate Household Water Treatment Technologies (“Scheme”)
- Support countries in implementing norms on HWT performance by strengthening regulation and complementary evaluation of HWT technologies
- Promote HWTS national policy and framework development as part of water safety planning
We look forward to jointly serving the Network to achieve its mission, which is to contribute to a significant reduction in water-borne and water-related vector-borne diseases, especially among vulnerable populations, by promoting HWTS as a key component of community-targeted environmental health programmes.
To start, we’ll be using the feedback we gathered at the Annual Network meeting at the 2019 UNC Water and Health Conference this past October, and are always open to your feedback and recommendations. With CAWST now leading the Network communication and engagement, we continue to invite you to get in touch if you would like to share something with the Network. We continue to welcome material such as recent publications, presentations, events, resources, calls for papers/proposals, etc. If you are seeking assistance with your program planning, you are also welcome to put a request out to the community. Or you may be a researcher and would like to share your research question with others or seek input or contacts for your work.
Moving forward, please direct all your inquiries and submissions to net...@hwts.info. You will receive the next newsletter from this new email address. Please note that all submissions we have received so far will be forwarded and included in the next issue of our newsletter. Moreover, a new webspace on HWTS has been created, accessible at hwts.info/network.
Please allow me to use this opportunity for a personal note.
After more than two years, eleven issues of the HWTS newsletter, and hundreds of tweets, I am leaving the Water Institute at UNC and resigning from leading the HWTS network communications as I am starting a new assignment at ITC at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. I want to thank you all very much for your active engagement in the HWTS Network, and for the kind notes that reached me over the years. It was wonderful collaborating with each and every one of you. As I continue as a network member, I am excited to see where this new chapter of network communications and engagement with CAWST takes us, and am looking forward to continue contributing.
With best wishes
Carmen Anthonj
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Gillings School of Global Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Email: carmen....@unc.edu
Skype: carmen.anthonj