The International Secretarait for Water - Serving sustainable community development

	Water is life !

	For the International Secretariat for Water, access to water us a worldwide challenge that must be locally managed. Today: 1.8 million people in the world, mostly women and children, die each year from water-related diseases 1.1 billion people still do not have access to clean water 2.6 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation systems Despite the fact that the United Nation's Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights recognized access to water as a basic human right in November 2002, the urgency of the situation calls for: Intensification of field interventions Full recognition of populations' and communities' contributions Implementation of major institutional changes, chiefly to improve the water and sanitation sector's financing mechanisms Partnership and participative approaches based on the right to water Development of local, regional, natinal and international solidarities Only by fulfiling these conditions can we reach the Milliennium Develoment Goals, hope to attain social and political stability throught the world, apply sustainable water management principles and protect the earth's ecosystems.

The International Secretariat for Water is….

It was created to implement the principles embodied in the Montreal Charter, which was adopted in New Delhi at the conclusion of the United Nations´ Water and Sanitation Decade in 1990.

The International Secretariat for Water's Human Resources are composed of three types of individuals:

Members of the Board, of very diverse backgrounds and fields of activity: associative, public, para-public, private and academic, establish the ISW's thrust and direction and act as communicators and multipliers throughout the world,
Associate experts, who work in all professional spheres of water management and thus develop in the course of their duties competencies concerning sustainable development,
The Secretariat Team, based in Montreal, puts into practice the ISW's mission, its trust and direction and its objectives in a coherent manner. It also ensures that the projects in which the ISW is involved answer to quality control standards and are managed in a transparent manner.

MAPS:

Board members

ISW as an international network