I'm happy to introduce our guest lecturer, Dr. Batsi Majuru, a technical officer at the World Health Organization. Today, she'll introduce the International Scheme to evaluate household water treatment technologies which aims to promote and coordinate independent testing of household water treatment products based on WHO performance criteria and also to support governments in building technical capacity. >> Hi I'm Batsi I work with Dr. Maggie Montgomery on the International Scheme to evaluate house and water treatment technologies. I'm going to be sharing more about the Scheme in this session. So, we are going to take a brief look at how the Scheme works and who is involved. And we're also going to be talking about what the Scheme is doing beyond lab testing of products, the capacity building activities that are being conducted in various countries. The Scheme is made up of several components. WHO acts as a Scheme Secretariat and coordinates all activities under the Scheme. The Scheme works together with an Independent Advisory Committee of experts in water microbiology, environmental science, and epidemiology, who provide advice, and test protocols and processes, and recommendations on the level of performance. There are currently two designated testing labs that are in the United States and in the Netherlands. Work is ongoing to expand testing to other national labs to conduct complementary testing. We'll discuss this briefly later. The manufacturer is a key component of the Scheme as they're the ones who submit the products that are to be tested. The interaction is only through the Scheme's secretariat at WHO to ensure independence throughout the evaluation process. Ultimately, the results from the testing are meant to guide governments in procuring entities and the selection of household water treatment products. And last, but certainly not least, are the users of the products. In terms of how the Scheme evaluation process works, manufacturers submit an expression of interest for the evaluation of a specific product, or in some instances, several products. This information is then reviewed by WHO and the advisory committee, and recommendations are made on the testing to be conducted. The product is then tested at one of the two designated testing laboratories. The results from the testing are shared with the manufacturer and also made publicly available at the Scheme web page. Ultimately, these results are meant to guide procuring entities and governments in the selection of house water treatment products. So this hopefully gives you a flavor of how testing under the Scheme works. In the following slides, we are going to talk about what the Scheme is doing beyond lab testing. WHO is also working to strengthen the capacity of resource-constrained countries to regulate and evaluate house and water treatment products to ensure that users are provided with products that could actually protect health. Many countries do not have health-based standards to assess and regulate household treatment products. And those that do often do not have structures in place to allow for independent review and assessment process. Therefore, WHO is working to strengthen regulation of these products. And as an example, in countries such as Ethiopia, it's working to provide training on risk-based assessments, establish certification processes, and develop protocols for evaluation of other water treatment technologies. This would enable national labs to conduct their own complementary testing. The second area of capacity building under the Scheme is assessing locally produced products, such as ceramic filters, chlorine solutions, and BioStone filters. The quality of these products is highly variable, and harmonize manufacturing processes can have a positive impact on improving the quality. The Scheme is working with partners in the international network on house and water treatment and safe storage to strengthen quality assurance and quality control procedures in these local manufacturing factories. An example of such quality management processes is the best practice recommendations for the manufacturing of ceramic pot filters that was developed by the Ceramics Manufacturing Working Group. This is a certification process that is currently being finalized and has been piloted in several countries. The certification process focuses on the efficacy of the filter and removing E.coli, and an assessment of the manufacturing processes at factories including raw materials that are used, mixing and molding processes, and quality assurance tests such as fluoride. The Scheme is working with the ceramics manufacturing working group to expand the application of the certification process to other countries. Here is an examples of some of the findings from assessment that have been conducted under this ceramic certification process from four factories. You can see from these pictures that the photos from Factories 2 and 3 are of poor quality compared to those from Factories 1 and 4. The third and final area of capacity building is field monitoring and evaluation of house water treatments products. Testing under the Scheme is limited to lab performance or efficacy. However, to protect health, products not only need to be effective in removing pathogens or be efficacious, but also be used correctly and consistently over time. The Scheme is working with countries to assess ongoing performance in the field and use of products, as well as establish platforms for national consumer feedback on these products. I hope that has given you a flavor of what the Scheme is doing both in terms of evaluating products and building capacity in countries. If you would like to find out more about the Scheme, you can visit our website where you'll be able to see the list of products that are currently under evaluation, the harmonized test protocols that we use in testing the products, and the work that we are doing to build capacity in countries. In summary, we have talked about testing under the Scheme, how it works, and who is involved. The main point to remember is that this testing is aimed at ensuring that in the first instance, products are selected that are actually capable of removing or inactivating pathogens in drinking water. But we also recognize that health impacts can only be achieved through correct and consistent use of effective products. So links to this effort is capacity building that WHO is doing to ensure that in the places where the products will be used most, there are regulations in place and mechanisms to assess and monitor the performance of products over time. Thank you.
