WHO Collaborating Centre for Research on Drinking-water Hygiene | Umweltbundesamt

The German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt – UBA) is a WHO Collaborating Centre on drinking-water hygiene.

WHO Collaborating Centres are national institutions, e.g. public authorities or research institutes that support the WHO with expertise and staff in the implementation of  their programmes and tasks. On the other hand, the collaborating centres also introduce internationally relevant topics and developments to national discussion forums. There are at present 24 WHO Collaborating Centres in Germany involved in a broad range of health issues.

Currently, our WHO collaborating centre focuses on the following tasks:

Normative and scientific work

• Involvement in the rolling revision of WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, the international point of reference in the arena of drinking-water hygiene and regulation
• Co-ordination of the thematic area the protection of drinking-water resources in the WHO Water Quality Advisory Group
• Co-ordination of development of WHO professional publications on toxic cyanobacteria and on water safety in small-scale water supplies

International co-operation

• Representation of Germany in implementation of the WHO-UNECE Protocol on Water and Health, which is jointly coordinated by the secretariats of  the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
• Leading the activity on small-scale water supplies and sanitation systems under the Protocol on Water and Health
• Developing materials and advisory and scientific-technical support of public authorities in charge of water and public health on drinking-water surveillance and implementation of the Water Safety Plan-approach (WSP) in lesser developed countries, e.g. in Georgia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kirgizstan, Iran, Jordan, Oman,  North Korea and Ethiopia