The European Youth Water Parliament was held in Stara Zagora, a town located in the southern part of Bulgaria, from 1-7 September 2003. It was the brainchild of a group of young people who took the initiative to start surveys and campaigns on freshwater, sanitation and hygiene. Earth Forever works in close cooperation with a wide range of international organisation, including The International Secretariat for Water in Quebec, Canada; Solidarity Water Europe, based in Strasbourg, France; and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Participants of the Youth Water Parliament came from a wide range of Eastern and Central European countries. Session participants engaged in presentations, sharing experiences and discussing results of case studies. The Youth Water Parliament officially launched the Youth WASH Network, with the specific mission is to promote safe drinking water, adequate facilities and proper hygiene education as a basic human right.

The goals of the Youth Network are:

• Mobilize the youth for reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals;
• Lobby national, local governments to focus on safe drinking water and adequate sanitation goals;
• Raise awareness about access to drinking water of high quality and adequate sanitation as a guaranteed Human Right;
• Encourage environmentally friendly behaviour as a tool to improve human health and welfare in line with the concept of integrated water management;
• Lobby for the introduction of compulsory hygiene education and ensuring proper conditions at school level to put this knowledge into practice;
• Lobby for the introduction of adequate national standards for public and school sanitation and hygiene; push for the enforcement of these standards via the national and local legislation;
• Involve collaborators at all levels, that is, international, national and local, as well as traditional leaders and influential groups.

Communication and Collaboration would involve the following:

• Joint projects;
• Joint campaigns;
• Joint publications;
• Bulletin (4 numbers yearly) - electronic and printed;
• Comparable research on the quality of water supply, sanitation and hygiene services;
• Workshops, training programs, seminars.

In total, 29 schools and NGO's from 10 countries agreed to participate in the Youth Network. The participants unanimously agreed on a WASH declaration as a framework for their future work:

WASH declaration:

'We, the young people and youth trainers from 15 countries of Europe, The Caucasia, Central Asia, Latin America and Africa, assembled in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, for the European Youth Water Parliament to share our knowledge, skills and efforts aimed at providing solutions to issues connected with participatory water management, water quality, sanitation and hygiene.

Given that water is a limited natural resource and therefore a limited public good, highly required by people and other living creatures. Cognizant of the fact that people also depend on water to maintain their personal hygiene, as well as maintaining hygiene at public places like schools, universities and offices.

Knowing that deteriorated water quality resulting from contamination with toxic elements, other harmful chemicals, biological pollutants and irregular water supply are often the major causes for the failure to maintain proper hygiene in the living environment and thereby resulting in health problems for many people.

And being aware of the vital necessity of safe water for ensuring sustainable development of society, we pledge the following:

1. To raise public awareness of water management issues by initiating and coordinating various actions and events like Water Festivals, peaceful demonstrations and parades, publishing brochures, posters and launching media campaigns. The goals of these will be to promote the educational process of sharing knowledge and changing attitudes and practices of citizens and students in schools and involve them as active participants in water protection and water conservation campaigns;

2. To strengthen control and monitoring aimed at protecting water sources and lobbying the authorities to ensure effective penalties in order to prevent the abuse of water resources. We will promote the interaction of organizations (such as Non Governmental Organizations) in the sector of IEC (Information, Education and Communication). This will be done in collaboration with the relevant authorities, water supply and sanitation utilities and the private sector.

3. To establish WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) committees consisting of democratically elected students and experts in each school, to strengthen control and monitoring for maintaining proper hygiene, for providing enough clean and safe toilets, separate for girls and for boys, for providing and improving operating facilities for handwashing. We are raising our voice to enforce legislation and ensure effective penalties are introduced.

4. To initiate meetings and discussions between Youth and Authorities in order to promote positive changes on local and national level and eventually on the international level. To increase Youth participation in decision-making processes concerning WASH.

5. To launch Youth WASH Network for the promotion of the Human Right to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and proper hygiene for a safe environment and improved human health'.

For further details about the European Youth Water Parliament, contact:

Ms. Diana Iskreva
President
NGO EARTH FOREVER
P.B. 362
Stara Zagora 6000
Bulgaria

Tel: 359-2-259670; Fax: 359-42-46050; E-mail: earth-forever@mbox.digsys.bg