IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre annual report 1970

In December 1968 an agreement was concluded between the World Health Organization and the Government of the Netherlands by which the Government Institute for Drinking Water Supply in The Hague has been designated as an International Reference Centre for Community Water Supply. The duties of the Centre as well as the Organization are described in the first annual report, dated 31 December 1969.

The W.H.O. International Reference Centre for Community Water Supply operates through a network of Collaborating Institutions all over the world and executes its tasks in co-operation with the Government Institute for Drinking Water Supply and other bodies in the Netherlands active in the field of water supply research and development, viz.:

• The Testing and Research Institute of the Netherlands Waterundertakings KIWA Ltd.
• The Netherlands Waterworks Association.
• Technological University Delft.
• International Courses in Sanitary Engineering.
• Research Institute for Public Health Engineering, T.N.O.
• National Institute for Public Health.

All these Institutions are represented on an Advisory Board to the Centre. Members of this Board are also representatives of W.H.O. and the Government of the Netherlands (Ministry of Public Health, Section for International Affairs) with Professor W.F.J.M. Krul as an advisor.

An important event during the reporting period was the International Conference on Research and Development in Community Water Supply held at Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, in October 1970. During this meeting the role of the Collaborating Institutions and the W.H.O. International Reference Centre could be defined more exactly, so that the I.R.C. was enabled to draft a five-years’programme outlining the future objectives and activities. It became evident that the organisational set-up of the I.R.C. should allow for future expansion of the activities in order to meet the requirements so clearly expressed by the Collaborating Institutions at the Dubrovnik Conference.

After the initial stage of rather limited activities, the Centre now has arrived at the point of getting the network of Collaborating Institutions into effective operation and to speed up its own activities. Already the collection and dissemination of information concerning research and development in the field of community water supply has been started. The regular publication of a Newsletter, intended to disseminate brief information on the various activities of I.R.C. and the Collaborating Institutions has been realised.