1. ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION REGIONAL OFFICE FOR EUROPE Extreme Weather Events, Water and Health 5th Meeting of the Working Group on Water and Health Geneva, 5 – 7 December 2005

2. Source: "EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database www.em-dat.net - Université Catholique de Louvain - Brussels - Belgium Number of people killed in all water related extreme events/disasters in the European Region, 1970 - 2005

3. The relationship between regional weather changes, exposures and health outcomes cCASHh, Summary for Policy Makers, 2005

4. Prevention of health effects of extreme weather events Adaptation in other sectors and sytemsHealth sytem adaptation  From disaster response to risk management  Risk assessment  Weather warning systems for early public health action  Rapid detection of impacts  International coordination  Risk communication  Research

5. What do we propose? Setting up an expert group to : Support the scientific communities and decision- makers; Identify the main concerns; Identify preventive measures to be strengthened; Assist in development of targets and implementation of effective measures; Interim results. MP.WAT/WG.4/2005/7EUR/05/5047554/7  From disaster response to risk management  Risk assessment  Weather warning systems for early public health action  Rapid detection of impacts  International coordination  Risk communication  Research

6. The Working Group Protocol on Water and Health, Article 8, 12 and 13: Surveilllance and early warning Guidelines on Sustainable Flood Protection: Control and reduce health impacts Seminar on Flood Prevention, Protection and Mitigation: Capacity building and policy guidance Based on:  Set up, under the existing work plan, an expert group on extreme weather events, water and health;  Invite countries to lead and contribute to the work of the expert group. The Working Group may wish to:

7. GCH unit of WHO/Euro Bettina Menne bme@ecr.who.euro.int Franziska Matthies evm@ecr.who.euro.int Tanja Wolf two@ecr.who.euro.int Christian Schweizer csc@ecr.who.euro.int http://www.euro.who.int/globalchange