As a founding member of the
Inter-institutional Committee for Ecuador's Water and Sanitation
Sector (CIASE, by its Spanish acronym), IOM has signed a Letter of
Commitment to help promote inter-institutional cooperation and
improve access to drinking water and sanitation for the poorest
populations living along Ecuador's northern border.

IOM's Northern Border Development Programme,
which was launched in 2001, has so far provided 105 water and
sanitation systems for some 231,000 people living in communities on
the Ecuador-Colombia border who host Colombians who have crossed
into Ecuador to flee the armed conflict in their country.

CIASE was created in 2003 to coordinate the
work of institutions and organizations involved in water and
sanitation projects. It includes representatives from the
ministries of Public Health, Housing and Urban Development, the
Programme for Water and Sanitation for Medium-sized Cities, the
Programme for Water and Sanitation for Small Communities and Rural
Municipalities, CARE Ecuador, Plan International, the Sodis
Foundation, UN-HABITAT, USAID, the World Bank, UNICEF, WHO/PAHO,
Belgian Technical Cooperation and the Programme for Potable Water
for the Ecuadorian Northern Sierra Region.

For more information please contact:

Maria Isabel Moncayo or Ana María
Guzmán

IOM Ecuador

Tel: (593-2) 225-3948

E-mail: "mailto:mmoncayo@oim.org.ec" target="_blank" title=
"">mmoncayo@oim.org.ec or "paragraph-link-underlined" href="mailto:aguzman@oim.org.ec"
target="_blank" title="">aguzman@oim.org.ec