The 2014 Symposium on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Asia (WASH) – organised by the PRESDA Foundation will be held on August 27 – 29, 2014 in Hiroshima, Japan at the KKR Hotel Hiroshima in parallel with the 2014 Asian Conference on Life Sciences (ACLS).
“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water” penned Benjamin Franklin over 250 years ago to not only underscore the essence of water for life but also to portend the horrors of its absence. Water, declared a basic human right essential to the enjoyment of life and all other human rights by the UN, is inextricably linked to a nation’s health, economy and environment, yet today over 780 million people lack access to clean water and nearly 1.9 billion lack adequate sanitation. The stark contrast between developed and developing nations amplifies the current water and sanitation crisis. Multiple factors, most notably poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships, place developing regions like sub-Saharan Africa and Southern and Eastern Asia in a struggle for survival. Furthermore, social and environmental challenges like rapid urbanization, climate change, increasing agriculture water consumption, rising pollution levels, and the depletion of water, exacerbate the problem and intensify the competition for available water.
In addition to the lack of safe and potable water, inadequate access to improved sanitation facilities combined with poor hygienic practices contributes to impoverishment and spawns devastating health effects, especially in rural areas and urban slums in developing countries. Without effective sanitation systems, untreated human waste contaminates ground water, compromises other water supplies, and allows infections and diseases to spread.
Over 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year as a result of diarrheal disease, and in India alone, approximately 600,000 children fall victim to diarrhea or pneumonia annually as a result of toxic water and poor hygiene. Regrettably, many of these incidents are preventable by using clean water technologies such as connections to public sewers or septic systems, toilets and latrines, and basic hygiene habits like hand washing with soap at critical times.
Without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation, the well-being of the human race is threatened, particularly in developing countries. As the world population increases, so does the demand for water. The technologies exist to rectify the water crisis, but progress is hampered by the lack of infrastructural investment by both the private and public sectors. Decision-makers at all levels must be involved to ensure the lives and dignity of the millions who depend on the rest of the world to intervene on their behalf.
Hiroshima, Japan, the City of Peace, is proud to host the 2014 WASH Conference. The three-day conference in August will provide an interdisciplinary platform for academics, researchers, policy makers, students and professionals. With the theme Global Challenges: Universal Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, it is hoped that today’s water crisis can be met with viable global solutions.
Symposium Topics
- Achieving Health Outcomes for WASH
- Aerobic and Anaerobic Treatment
- Climate Change
- CSR
- Ecological Sanitation
- Equity Issues for WASH
- Household Treatment and Safe Storage
- Hygiene and Behavioral Change
- ICT for Water
- Industrial Hygiene
- Innovations in Water Supply and Waste Water
- Low Tech Treatment Systems
- Measurement and Risk Management
- Nutrient Removal
- Operation and Maintenance of Water Supply Systems
- Prevention and Treatment of Waterborne Illnesses
- Public Health Education
- River Restoration
- Sanitation and Health
- Sanitation: Urban and Rural
- School Sanitation
- Soil Quality
- Sustainable Development
- The Millennium Development Goals
- Waste Management
- Waste Water Reclamation and Reuse
- Water and Sanitation Services
- Water Economics
- Water Policy and Governance
- Water Quality
- Water Source Protection
- Other (please specify)
Publication Opportunity
Although full papers are not required, there might be an opportunity for selected papers of high quality to appear in a special edition of Sustainability (ISSN 2071 – 1050), which is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of environmental, cultural, economic and social sustainability. It provides an advanced forum for studies related to sustainability and sustainable development. Sustainability is published by MDPI online monthly.
The journal is indexed and abstracted, among others, by Chemical Abstracts, CAB Abstracts, RePEc (including EconPapers and IDEAS) and Google Scholar. The Editorial Board members, including several Nobel laureates, are all leading, active scholars.
Organising Committee
- Luis Maria Bo-ot, Ph.D. – National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines, Diliman, The Philippines
- Irma Magaña Carrillo, Ph.D. – Faculty of Tourism, Campus Villa de Álvarez, Universidad de Colima, Mexico
- George W Crabtree, Ph.D. – Argonne National Laboratory, USA
- Hossein Esmaeli, Ph.D. – Flinders University, Australia
- Mingjing Guo, Ph.D. – School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, P.R. China
- William P. Kittredge, Ph.D. – Cervelet Management and Strategy Consultants, USA
- Christopher Leeds, Ph.D. – Dominican University of California, USA
- Bhimaraya Metri, Ph.D. (IIT – Bombay) – International Management Institute, Former Dean of MDI & SSBS
- Kanako Morita, Ph.D. – National Institute for Environmental Studies, Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research, Japan
- Prawit Puddhanon, Ph.D. – Faculty of Agricultural Production, Maejo University, Thailand
- Salvador Peniche, Ph.D. – University of Guadalajara, Mexico
- Aspalella A. Rahman, Ph.D. – College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia
- John Stayton, MBA – Dominican University of California, USA
- Thomas L. Theis, Ph.D. – Institute for Environmental Science and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
- Scott Valentine, Ph.D. – Dept. of Public Policy & School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, China (SAR)