This event is part of the World Water Week 2017.
Uncontrolled production and excessive use of antibiotics have significantly promoted the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) which has evolved into a global health risk during the past decades. The problem is now on the agenda from the grassroots level to a UN high level meeting and an industry roadmap. More restrictive and targeted use in human and veterinary medicine, advanced wastewater-treatment as well as the development of new groups of antibiotics are key priorities, while the supply chain with industrial wastewater being a key pathway of pharmaceuticals to the environment, is only slowly gaining attention.
Antibiotics represent in many ways also other pharmaceuticals as environmental pollutants and their emission pathways, including the market being both intransparent and strictly regulated, which can hinder quick improvements. Those most affected and exposed to the risks, land workers and people living in global production hotspots, are rarely heard in this context. Access to knowledge for affected people and collaboration between the numerous initiatives is crucial in order to achieve fast response, promote synergies and prevent a lock-in of the regulation in insufficient measures.
This session aims at bringing different processes and actors in dialogue and promoting cooperation for maximum efficiency of processes and resources.
A summary of the event can be found here.