Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service and the National Television Network, NTN, I'm Primus Hutchinson. The issue is the castries market redevelopment project and other related developments in the castries business. It forms part of the Castries City Tourism Product. We financed and secured from the World Bank towards the implementation of the OECS Original Tourism Competitiveness Project, or ROTCP. The project principally aims to improve selected tourist sites in castries. In this regard, the Government of St Lucia has identified the Castries City Tourism Product as a priority for St Lucia with targeted investment sites and activities aimed at making downtown castries more pleasant and attractive to tourists as well as to St Lucia residents. The first phase of the project was officially handed over to the Castries Constituents Council on Sunday, March 3, 2020, construction of the $32 million project started in 2019 and is able to withstand wind speed up to a category of five hurricane. It is also quite interesting to note that the food market has been ranked number three in the world by the National Geographic magazine in a listing of the top 10 food markets in the world. The new facilities outfitted with 100 stalls to accommodate all the vendors and it appears that they have settled in quite comfortably. We've made to provide the answers regarding the status of the project and plans to elevate it to a state-of-the-art facility is the Mayor of Castries, his worship, Peter St. Francis. Welcome to Issues and Answers, Francis. I'll give you Mr. Brimus. Let us start off by perhaps you giving us what is the status of the project currently? Well, as you rightly said that we have finished the provision market. Right now what we are doing is the marketing board which is built enough to go down that we're in the process of doing, we have identified a spot for the vendors or wrong the marketing board. So as long as we finalize this, I mean we have just signed an MOU, the Ministry of Tourism, so that is going quickly but you know the season that we are in there right now that we have to put people first before project. But that is on the card. So we are now in consultation with the people that we are going to move them by, if you know the empty spot by Rekai there, we're going to relocate these people temporarily. Okay. That's how we're going to have them for the period of that construction. That would be next to the Grand Reveal? That's right, opposite the Grand Reveal where that CDC that says it was broken down next to Rekai. So that's we're in the process of doing that now. As I said we just signed an MOU with the tourism. So as soon as we are looking at, we are looking close to Mr. Poyot who is the lead person on that. So right now is just a question of going to transfer the people there. We are going to do infrastructure there quickly as well. So we hope in the next three weeks to accommodate all the vendors around the marketing board. Those around the marketing board, okay, I see. But how about those who are already well, of course, the Indian would need to be shifted back. The old market was constructed over 130 years ago and that's about the year 1891 or hit there about. That's quite old for a market. So you're saying that this project is timely. Would you agree? Yeah, I agree with that. I mean incidentally the good thing about the one, I mean most of my, I mean growing up was around the market. So I could tell you, I could tell you at the time, I mean what it looked like, what it and what. But they have improved. But what we are doing now is really upgrading it. I mean it has really seen its time. But in the redevelopment, I mean the craft market is just about enhancing it. But it will not be taking away its architecture of what it is working on right now. As you rightly said that it has been ranked number three in the world by the National Geographic. Operations of the new market seems well organized. Although some may argue that aesthetically it requires some slight touch, some slight touch. That is what some people are saying. Are you still confronted with issues affecting vendors? Oh yes. I mean the most amazing thing is this. You know, while the vendors were vending on the little tapoline under the wind and rain and so on. Now we have given them a first class facility. This is the time they want to go out now, go on the road to sell. And that has been a challenge for us. I mean you know these days everything is politics. These are the vendors operating within the facility. Yes itself. Now they are leaving the facility. Yes they are. Why is that? I don't know why. Now they have become very creative. They are now taking trolleys. Before we didn't have trolleys. But now because we have the food market, there are people with trolleys on the road selling. Because those who have went back to the sidewalk but we are not tolerating that. But it's a challenge. A daily challenge. But have you sat down with them to discuss why do they feel that it is necessary to go out and do things? Well you know, we have a mentality. I mean you know in the part of the door Bev Du Vagaboy had blown it. So they believe they are in front. Like they're on the road before you get to the market. Then you'll deal by your solutions. The other thing is we don't like to walk. So how is that working out? So far we have been able to manage it. We have been able to manage it. And they have cooperated. Yes they have cooperated. I mean our city police have to get involved in it. But it's a daily challenge. The tourism minister Honourable Dominic Fede in a statement last year says that and I quote Not only will this create a nexus between authentic St. Louisian products and the export market but visitors to our shores will be able to be part of the experience. Do you share that view as well? Authentic products? Yes I will share that. I'm a promoter of that. You see what is happening. Like let's take for example I mean we have two people in Swinsel who produce the basket. But not only that they have to produce but they have to get themselves to castries to try to sell it. I feel that should not be. They are the producers. People should be able to buy the basket come and sell it. So they will have more time to produce and everything of that. Even to upgrade the product. We have selling, let's look at the condiments. We have people like bar and food. We have people like Viking traders. I mean in that market we should be able to display this. They should not be the one going to the market. We should have people who are selling not for them on their behalf but basically buy their products. Like let's take for fish, let's take for meat. Right there we should be able to the tourists coming we should be able to sample these things. You have the meat, you have the fish season it please and so on. So I agree totally. I mean don't liquidate as far as you know. Regarding the fish market and the meat market in particular the order there's an offensive that doesn't really how do you be able to address that What we have we have started what we do I mean I had a meeting with the vendors the fishmen and I was pleasantly surprised they said give us the tools and we will do what we have to do and it has so far it has been working fairly well although you know we believe the guy who took charge of it they believe that he is getting paid he is not getting paid by CCC so we have given him the beans, we have given him the brooms we have given him the hose, we have given him everything so if you pass now you'll find out that that's less of a challenge. You're not going to get the type of smell you're getting before because they have been doing it when they use the fish guards they go they dispose of it and everything so they themselves we have given them in charge of their own things in the Facebooks but so far it has been working but again you know that at any time someone is trying to take responsibility for something they believe there is something in it for you so right now instead of cooperating with a guy you go and do it because you can pay for it but it's something we have to have on our meeting to see and explain what's happening but so far so good but when the project when you finally start the new project would it have any would it do you believe it would impact the operations of the the market itself I mean the construction going on and the perhaps dust the only thing is the beginning of marketing board that's the first stage apart from the building I don't think we have taken all these things in consideration like the desks and all these things so we will not have to shift the food market no but as I say it's just the people who are wrong the marketing board this place I hopefully for about 6 to a year I'm not sure if you addressed that earlier that you have had discussion with them and they have agreed that yes they have agreed to that incidentally we are going by the old fire station where you find out we had defended before but we have seen said that and going by they say by Rikai and Jeremy to have them but we have and so on as you see the whole bank is more moving people their compensation and all these things there's a canal nearby that wouldn't have by anything as well on the other side the side closer to the current review of Boston yes no but we are on the other side the other side Rikai when the block GS was okay okay we have musical hearts right in front of them okay okay the next component of phase one what it entails how is let's look at this first what it entails can you go the other stage we have now that the marketing board will be rebuilt they will be the ones controlling the building so the new project but it's part of the new project but it's still been controlling of that section of it but we are looking the box pack situation that's what we are going to do so we will have an upper level and a lower level we will comprise a book for them between five nine square feet five thousand nine hundred square feet we are going to have convenience stores in the first level about sixteen of them we will have convenience stores we will have the fish vendors we will have the mid vendors we will have toilet facilities well you know the usual electrical thing and so on closets and so on the first level will be bars and shops and so on and you will also have a tower so tourists could go and look and so on one other thing that I mean in cash we will see is that you know you are married man so I can't tell you that you know better than you say you want to take your wife how did you arrive at that I will apologize if I'm wrong but I mean don't look at it like right now you know tell someone that you know there is no way I'm not saying they don't have restaurants they are not up to the start but I mean the setting somebody from the bank and say well you know open body from that can we have lunch today and so on go and get a setting and so on I mean we don't have that so we are lacking that dinner and lunch situation at night you have to go up north to really have you know the traffic situation you know the length of time but for one time you take one hour to reason off the person have to report home in the next ten minutes so that's what we are trying to bring that night life back to castries in the time instead of you so everybody will be able to confine themselves within so we are looking forward to night time because you will be able to say well let me go up north and have dinner and so on you will be right there in town you will be able to have your also in that we will still maintain the solution right now the country and western which you can take on this to bring back how was it called the Nashville Nashville palace so we have that all these things will be maintained and so on the more relaxing and so on you know I mean as you said like we have a tourist boat tomorrow I mean these people could go up there look at over the harbor have the tower look there and join himself and so on so as we said as I said he described it perfectly but there was a problem with the roof is that that itself will be taken care of I mean with the new design and so on obviously you have to redo the roof you may have touched on the financing of the project how how soon do we expect to see the good thing about this Mr. Mayor I've just been informed that we need to take a short break we are moving fast the Mayor of Cassis Association Peterson Francis stay with us we will be back in just a moment oh you have realized you step on my tour we'll do something about it that's why I boosted in diamond welcome back this is issues and answers and we are discussing the Cassis Market redevelopment project with the Mayor his worship Peterson Francis Mr. Mayor we were talking about the financing of the the project how is that going the good thing about that project is that the money is there waiting for us it's already available it's just that we are the one taking our time now to dispose of it but it's not a question of sourcing the money the money is there the only problem I have is that we are not moving fast enough because that money might be relocated so what is causing no it's just a question of I mean as you know the COVID has put us behind a long way right now we are in election time and as I said you know people are telling we are the project will kick off sometime this year no one of us is going incidentally we were supposed to start the second phase about three weeks ago although we had to do the marketing board we were done and we located the people so as I said I have signed an MOU to relocate the people and so the money the finance is there we didn't talk about the duration we really take for completion we look at what we have today about probably a minimum okay all right you touched on it earlier on the vending outside the cashier's market now that you have placed well some people see you placed a ban I am not sure you have to explain that a ban on vending outside of the market have you seen an improvement the card vendors how has the CCC assisted those displaced well basically what has happened the provision market is that we are committed for every vendor that was selling originally all the vendors so what is happening now in any given day you might say about minimum of 25, 44,000 empty and these are the people that is looking for space around gas fees to sell these are the people we took out from the sidewalks they now believe that taking people too long to get inside the market and they did not realize that is the presentation of your goods how people look at it they will come and buy from it as I said if they are in front they will get the sale and the fact that they are not part of the vendors who are occupying the cash flow market and that is how they make their living they have a little cart moving around they do I am surprised that all the CCC outside of selling vendors within the market who are sending people outside they have the agents all of them every single one of them is not a new provision sale that is coming down every young guy younger whoever you see there they are connected to someone within the market so that is what is good it is not new vendors we have not people looking for space the only thing we do on a Saturday on a Friday is to come island wide from island all over the island so we relax it on a Friday so whatever little space you get within apart from bridge street and the boulevard wherever you could get your space you are allowed to it is not a vexing issue it is not that challenging on Fridays we realize that even in the provision market on Fridays and Saturdays they are free wherever they could let's talk a little bit about other plans for the city you spoke glowingly about plans for the city of castles the boulevard and other areas we are not a boulevard to really upgrade it we are looking also I mean what we are doing you see we have coffee shops you could be what people could come in again it is holistic and locals you could sit there, you could have a thing and so on, walk around we are looking, we have public entertainment theater people could come and so on so that is for the boulevard the square as you know we have started the first space on the square removing the walls and people are quite satisfied what they are looking at the main fact that is now open we have monuments coming there we have to re-locate the fountain and all these things so there is a lot of plans for the square I don't know what we are going to do but my own reason I told the PM that whether the old cinema was there I think it should require that we want to give the old education so when you are in the boulevard you could actually see right through the church I know that the government has plans breaking up from the print tree minimal bookings they have been relocated even the parliament even the old courthouse so all these things so instead of having the parking on the square we are not going to be that between Labry Street and Payne Street so we have all these plans you are looking at we are looking at the redevelopment of the wharf tell us a little bit about that well that is not my project that is government property I can't elaborate too much on that but you have a say at all I will inform Julie that is being done and will be part of the thing you will not use your influence in any way of course of course you are knowing me we are looking at if you realize that it is a while that I have cleaned banan if you look at it there is quite a wharf banan look now and the other thing that I am very happy about that you don't look at banan now and see all this plastic I mean on any given day you look at banan as far as if it is really not that you mentioned the expansion of castles that has been banded for quite a while now moving all the way into it has been yes well if you realize that I am not taking the credit for myself but you realize that I am pushing if you realize all food banan if you look at the right dong that have been cleaned we are looking again we are looking for a jetty so in other words again we want to develop banan so when the cruise ship is coming tomorrow there are people who don't want to go that far take a little ferry and go across the banan you have restaurants, you have everything there and so on so all that is in the pocket how would that work with the Foix show community aesthetically well it is a while even the fishermen there that said John wanted to relocate them to Tapio I mean and so on so we will be working with the people they are aware of what they are doing we will be working with them we can't just displace people you come there and say no we are going to work with them but the only good thing about the banan area especially by the sea you don't have many people living there if you know what and I am one of the believers that yes you know the people are there and you have to give them something an incentive you only tell me ok somebody living in banan Wunapi is no electricity Wunapi for no water Wupi is no rent and you tell him ok I am going to relocate you but I will give you a house at $450,000 but that resident now has to look even there is $100 $200 a month to pay as far as I am concerned that's not improvement these people they might be able ok they pay for 5 years and they can't afford to pay again that's 5 years money that they have lost I think if you could give the person where there is life life long enjoyment of the home you could move them to the children but you can't tell somebody moving them from paying nothing to something and you say you have done something for them and that's as far as I am concerned so people I couldn't let's get away, let's look at them give them a house it doesn't matter what it worth but at the end of the day your there, your lifetime you live your children comes and so on at least you know that's improvement and not poverty you might have a house you might have wallops or even property that will be well accepted I am sure but you are saying a little in quite all of our vendors what is the encouragement for these vendors some of these vendors they don't want to sell their own they want to buy their own before you just say they want to buy the place they want to sell and so on they don't want to buy the place especially now they don't want to buy the place especially now so if you want to sell well, if you want to sell you can sell all this if everyone has their own place you will see that you can buy have your own you can buy and store they don't want to sell you don't want to sell and then they will sell and then they will sell So just watch it in your place. Type who improves the photograph here. You're certainly going to be able to work with it. You're going to be able to work with it. Oh, I'm going to be able to work with it. You're going to be able to work with it. Mr. Mayor, how do you call it? I'm trying to get the name now for the parking meters. The parking meters. Yeah, so that is an advanced stage right now. But again, I'm seeing that everything in the election and so on. Before we are going to park in Terminals, we have seen what is called a smart parking. Presently, we are only waiting for the SI to start putting in these meters. What will happen now is we have identified the street, we have identified the Boulevard, we have Mico Street, Brise Street, Coral Street, we have all these streets, I mean, the name of few. So what you call it now is smart parking. So you'll be able to see anyway, if you come from La Brie, you come to Cassuies, you know where I'm coming for two hours and so on, you could just go to your phone, look and see what the space that is available, book your space, pay for it, and your spot is there waiting for you. So that is what, I mean, everything, I mean, the operators are already here, they have already opened the office.  Mr. Mayor, before we end, I mean, we need to end at Terminal. I think that I'm very concerned about the mentally challenged individuals working around the city. Recently I was attacked and other people have been attacked. Seriously, that is. How do you tend to address this? Well, you see, primers started seriously and I have a complaint about these things over and over. We have agencies in this country who are powered by law to take care of certain things in this country, like the environment and so on. We, I mean, the office of the mayor is not qualified. I mean, right now we have brought in the city police. They're very restrained, they try to restrain, but they will not even qualify to handle these people. So I've been always clamoring for the agencies that are empowered, that have the law on their side, that will work with them. I mean, I know the representative process is doing the best though. We'll work, the city police will work with them. But we need the people, the expert people that has experience on the law behind them to first get together and so on. And because that is why I've gotten a reputation. Like, you know, I'm a lone ranger. You don't have a tanto with you. Exactly. I don't have a tanto. Not even a tanto. No, I thought I didn't see it was your tanto. No, it was all. Mr. Rea, we need to end. We've come to the end of our discussion. Thank you so very much for being there with us. We were discussing the Cassius Market Redevelopment Project with the mayor of Cassius, the worship of Peterson, Francis. This has been issues and answers. I'm Private Hutchinson. Thank you for being here. Mr. Rea. Thank you, sir.


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How do you stay relevant and keep re innovating yourself so you stay relevant, especially in the communication world? All I have done, Daniel, is listen and pay attention and be in the shoes of young people and watch what they're putting out and read what they're writing, listen to their cries for help in multiple ways on movies or TV shows or social media or podcasts or just read and listen and key in to what they're talking about when I have young people in Q&A, the nature of the questions they ask and the way in which they ask them and their attachment to the outcomes of the answers that we provide. And I think that's been, no, I don't just do that so I can sort of appear contemporary. I do that because any organization, business, political party, if they don't do some version of that, Daniel, where we're constantly listening to the future because that's what these kids are, they're the future. If we're not listening to their concerns and what matters most to them and what they aspire to be and become, then we're going to fade into irrelevance whilst claiming we're very irrelevant and a lot of organizations are hugely irrelevant and know that but they bolt things on their trendy.


Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us for today's webinar and for the launch of the second edition of the IWA-WHO Water Safety Plan Manual. My name is Philip De Souza and I'm an associate at Zittari, an engineering and advisory firm with officers throughout Africa and also in the Middle East. I'm also the co-chair of the IWA Water Safety Planning Specialist Group. And many of you on the call today probably participated in our very successful water safety planning conference which we held in Narvik, Norway last year. And hopefully you'll all be happy to know that we have already started planning our next conference for 2024. So please watch the space and please continue to interact with the Water Safety Planning Specialist Group. We really value your inputs. As you are aware, water safety planning is a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach that includes all steps in the water supply system from catchment all the way through to consumer. And water safety planning is a proactive management system that ensures continuous supply of safe drinking water by number one, knowing your system thoroughly, identifying where problems might occur, putting barriers and management systems in place to stop these problems before they happen and making sure all parts of your water supply system work properly. The IWA and WHO released the Water Safety Plan Manual in 2009. And over the years, many of us on this call today have probably read, reread and debated the content they're of. This second edition aims to incorporate the lessons learned from almost 15 years of development and implementation of water safety plans by water utilities from around the world. Before we get started, let's look at some housekeeping. This webinar will be recorded and made available on demand on the IWA website. Also, we note that if you have any questions during the various presentations, please type them into the question box in your Zoom control panel at the bottom of the screen. The speakers will try to answer them following their various panel discussion presentations and we will then also have time for questions at the end. Please don't post any questions in the chat as this is reserved for other webinar related issues such as checking for sounds and connection. Okay, so over to the business of the day. You'll see that we have the various speakers on the next slide please. We have four speakers today. Darryl Jackson, who is a consultant from Australia, Margaret McCauley from Ghana Water Company Limited in Ghana, Asoka Jairatna from Yarra Valley Water in Australia, and then engineer Sonabal from the Department of Health in the Philippines. If we have a quick look at the agenda of the day, first we'll have some opening remarks from Bruce Gordon from the WHO. And then Darryl will give us an overview of what we can expect from the second edition of the Water Safety Plan Manual. We'll then have a panel discussion where we'll ask the various panelists some interesting questions and learn from the experiences. And then we'll have some time for open questions and answers for the panelists to look at. We'll then have some final remarks from Color from the IWA. Okay, so it's my privilege to now hand over to Dr. Bruce Gordon, who is the unit head of water, sanitation, hygiene and health at the World Organization. To open the session. Bruce, over to you. Thanks so much, Phillip.  I see there's nearly 300 people that have joined and I'm really excited about this session. So just really on behalf of IWA and WHO, I wanted to kind of welcome everyone. And as you were kind of saying, Phillip, the Water Safety Plan approach is just so important. Preventive risk management is the central recommendation of WHO's guidelines. And, you know, the difficult part about it is really not saying it sort of ought to be done, but how do we do it? And how do we do it, especially in resource limited contexts? How do we ensure equity is kind of integrated into the approach? And how do we kind of deal with some of the emerging climate risks? So as you said, Phillip, I mean, there's been, I would say even more than 15 years of experience now from practitioners, from water suppliers, inputs from regulators, we've had countless trainings, including the one you mentioned and meetings. So there's just been a real kind of, you know, opportunity to hear back about what's worked, maybe what hasn't worked so well from the first edition. And so the team that has put this together has really kind of tried so hard to make this as user friendly and practical as possible, bringing in all these lessons. And so that's my main point here is it does say WHO and IWA, but I see this as our collective resource. We all own this. It's a joint global effort. And so that is why I am so pleased with it. So I think without further ado, I just maybe wanted to end on this point. And that is, you know, as the world kind of is coming together in New York, actually now it's this month to for our biggest kind of engagement on trying to improve, you know, water supply and sanitation across the world. Certainly WHO's commitment is to try to, you know, provide a great space for technical assistance on preventive risk management and water safety planning. And it's a pleasure to do this with IWA and all of you. So I think with that, I will pass this back to you, Philip, and, you know, with a lot of enthusiasm. Thanks very much for really appreciate your inputs and support over the years. I think water safety planning has made a huge impact on municipalities and utilities around the world. And it's thanks to the great initiatives of the IWA and WHO. So now on to the main event and a man who needs little introduction in water safety planning circles. Daryl Jackson has been assisting WHO in its support of water safety plans for many years, mostly through capacity building and water safety planning assessments. And if you have been fortunate enough, as I have, you have set through a Daryl Jackson training session. He's one of the authors of the second edition of the WSP manual. And it has started way back in 2018 already with these amendments. Daryl, everyone is eagerly awaiting your presentation and you're showing us the new baby. Thank you. Okay. Thanks very much, Philip. And good day to you all. And I hope you are all well. So I'm really delighted to introduce to you the second edition of the manual. Firstly, let's highlight some of the key drivers for revising the manual. Global experience. Since the publication of the first edition in 2009, we've seen strong global uptake of WSP's. And that's a trend expected to continue throughout the SDG era. A 2017 report found that over 90 countries were implementing WSP's or equivalent. So there was a good opportunity to learn from these practitioners about their experiences with the first edition and use these learnings to strengthen the guidance. The second edition also gives us an opportunity to address some common misunderstandings or misconceptions. For example, how the various types of monitoring fit within the WSP framework and some aspects of the risk assessment methodology. Thirdly, it became clear that water safety planning is broader than just water quality. The revised manual needed to better integrate aspects other than quality. For example, by providing more clarity on water quality and acceptability issues. But still within the context of public health protection, which is, after all, the core purpose of water safety planning. Fourthly, the new manual needed to keep a pace with growing challenges and uncertainties faced by water suppliers. Like impacts from population growth, urbanization and land use pressures, climate variability and change. And to ensure that resilient water supplies deliver equitable benefits to all users. And a critical lesson we learned is that greater attention is needed on the actual implementation of WSP's. And we're not just talking of developing a better document that sits on the shelf, but actually embedding water safety planning in day-to-day operations, monitoring and management. And this is key to achieving and sustaining the benefits of WSP's at scale. And how to do this needed to be better reflected in the new manual. So how did we undertake the revision? So here's a high-level summary of the revision and stakeholder engagement process. It began in 2017 with a global training event in Kenya where a number of WSP experts shared their experiences with the first edition of the manual. This led to recommendations for revision of the manual and this was informed by an extensive global stakeholder interview process. A first annotated outline was issued for peer review in 2018. And from this a series of drafts were developed before a global peer review was completed in 2022. More than 30 respondents representing experts and practitioners from all six WHO regions including water suppliers, operators and regulators were involved. So before I highlight some of the key changes to the second edition, which is I'm sure what you really want to know, it's worth noting that the fundamental WSP approach has not changed. The experience of thousands of WSP practitioners has demonstrated the soundness of the WSP risk management approach. The first change to highlight is that the new manual makes it explicitly clear that water safety must holistically consider aspects relating to quality, acceptability and quantity whilst framing these in the context of public health protection. This was covered to an extent in the first edition, but the new edition clarifies this and emphasises the importance of this holistic approach. Here's just one example of how we've done this. In module three, the first edition classified hazards as microbial, chemical, radiological and physical. Whereas in the second edition, physical hazards have been reclassified as aspects relating to the user acceptability of the water. And we've introduced quantity related hazards to better reflect hazards that may arise from climate impacts, as well as those relating to equity issues for all users of the system. These changes in module three are then addressed throughout the subsequent modules, such as the risk assessment, improvement planning, operational monitoring and so on. In terms of the second change, it's clear from practical experiences that while practitioners will develop a robust WSP plan, often there's a sense that the job is then done with limited attention given to actually implementing the plan. And as we all know, a plan does not manage risks. People actively implementing the plan is what is required for effective water safety planning. And this applies particularly for issues like monitoring, verifying and auditing as shown here. We convey the importance of this throughout the entire manual. One example of this is by presenting the WSP process as a continuous cycle, which can be visualized in four quadrants as shown in this WSP in action diagram. This includes the development stage, the operational stage, the verification stage and finally the review and update stage, which leads back to further WSP development and a continuous process of WSP strengthening. So this makes it clear that developing the plan itself is really just the first step. And the active implementation of the remaining stages is essential for effective and sustained outcomes. Showing an example here from module five for improvement planning. It's clear that in the development phase, the improvement plans are prepared. These must be actively implemented in the operation stage. And progress on the improvement plans should be regularly reviewed and the plans updated as needed in the WSP review and update stage. In addition, we provide more concrete and real-world examples to support modules six to ten, particularly around operational monitoring and WSP verification. There's strength and messaging on the concept of progressive improvement. And this helps practitioners better understand the importance of getting started and improving the WSP over time as resources and capacities allow. So in essence, not letting the perfect WSP be the enemy of a good WSP. Some examples are shown here and this message is highlighted within the relevant modules. Thirdly, a need was identified to clarify certain aspects of the risk assessment methodology. To bring more clarity, module three now deals exclusively with the identification of hazards and hazardous events and introduces a template to help WSP teams better define their hazardous events to support subsequent risk assessment and prioritization. In addition, module four now deals exclusively with the risk assessment, where a one-stage risk assessment is presented as the default example, but with supporting guidance on the benefits and limitations of this approach relative to a two-stage risk assessment. Further, the definitions in the risk matrix have been strengthened alongside additional examples to help WSP teams define the risk matrix in their own context. And the last key change to highlight now is the integration of climate and equity considerations within the guidance. Since the publication of the first edition, WHO has published supplementary guidance for these aspects, the Guide to Equitable Water Safety Planning and Climate Resilient WSP's on the right. It's important to convey that these elements are not bolt-on or optional or that they are separate activities to call water safety planning. So the second edition has streamlined these considerations into the guidance to help ensure more resilient drinking water supplies for the full diversity of system users. The second edition doesn't replace these documents, but integrates their core messages in the main WSP approach and there's clear signposting in the manual for more detailed information from both documents. So those are the key headlines from the revision process and in terms of some additional points of interest. A strong emphasis has been placed on sharing real-world challenges and practical solutions. Each module is supported by illustrative case studies spanning all six WHO regions and representing both lower and higher income settings. Now the manual itself is broken into four parts as shown here. These are self-explanatory, but I'll highlight a couple of points of interest. The toolbox materials are available to download in editable formats. They include some suggested templates for most modules. This is especially of interest to newcomers to water safety planning. And there are also supplementary toolboxes available via links. And these topics include a worked example, a system description checklist, list of possible threats in a range of example risk matrices. Annex 1 highlights the key changes made to compare with the first manual. Annex 2 gives guidance on how to manage WSP's when you have multiple systems. Annex 3 suggests how to use WSP's in conjunction with other management systems like ISO 9001, HACCP and ISO 31000. Annex 4 compares the single and the dual stage risk assessment approaches. Well, you may be wondering if you're now using water safety panning should these changes affect your current WSP? Firstly, don't panic. It's not necessary to update your WSP's immediately. Consider the changes during your WSP reviews. And if changes are beneficial in your context, gradually integrate these changes in future iterations of the WSP. So that's it from me. Back to you, Phillip. Thank you, Daryl. Yeah, and hopefully participants and practitioners are comforted by the fact that the second edition is not reinventing the wheel but rather refining it. And also I welcome the addition of some of these supplementary tools and templates. And I think they will be of great use to many utilities and municipalities out there. A reminder to please continue to pose your questions in the Q&A. I notice we have had a couple of questions already, but yeah, we will have an opportunity for Q&A session at the end of the panel discussion. And that brings us onto the panel. I would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce our panelists and just to note that our panel reflects practitioner experience, including that from water utilities and also regulators from diverse settings. So there's obviously a lot of other practitioners and experts out there. We have tried to make sure that we are covering as much of the bases as possible in the limited time that we have. I'd like to start by introducing Dr. Margaret McCauley. She's currently the Chief Manager of Water Quality Assurance for Garner Water Company Limited. And prior to this she served for five years as the water quality manager in charge of the Garner Water Central Laboratory with the ACRA team Aeroproduction Region. She has been breaking ground for women scientists and engineers in Ghana since she began a professional career with Garner Water in 1992 and has both on the ground operational experience and management experience regarding developing and implementing water safety plans. Our next panelist is Ahsoka Jairatna and he is the Water Quality Specialist at Yarra Valley Water in Melbourne, Australia. He's a chartered civil engineer with more than 40 years of experience in the water industry and he has been with Yarra Valley Water since 1997. Ahsoka has been assisting WHO since about 2009 with several water safety planning initiatives including authoring and reviewing various publications with capacity building programs including training and auditing in the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Ghana, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Our third panelist is engineer Sonabal who currently works at the Department of Health in the Philippines. Her main tasks focus on policy making and technical assistance on programs and projects related to environmental health. Engineer Sonabal is part of the core team that has crafted the two vital water quality policies in the Philippines including the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water of 2017 and the National Policy on Water Safety Plans for All Drinking Water Service Providers. She has an undergrad degree in civil engineering and environmental and sanitary engineering and she also has a master's in public health and a master's in municipal water and infrastructure engineering. And then our fourth panelist is Darryl who we all know. So for the panel discussions we have going to pose questions to our panelists and then we will hear their response and please feel free to add in any further questions that you would like the panelists to answer. So I'm going to start with Margaret and Margaret. The question I'm going to ask you today is in your experience, what have been the challenges with trying to move from the development of water safety plans to the implementation and how can you describe any of the steps that you're currently putting into place to overcome some of these barriers to help your organization go on a water company limited to progress towards effective implementation of water safety planning. Over to you Margaret. Thank you very much Philip. I'm very happy to be part of this the engagement this morning and I'd like to answer the question by indicating that Ghana Water Company Limited has installations all over the country that is in Ghana, more than 95 different systems all over the country. And we have 15 regions. So if to answer the question of the challenges, the main challenge that we have had has to do with transfer of staff. And Ghana Water has not started implementing across the other regions. So we started by a pilot in just one region in one system. And what happened, the main challenge, as I said, is the fact that as a company, we tend to transfer our staff from time to time. So the core team that worked on the water safety plan development in the system where we did the pilot, almost all of them have been transferred to other regions, including the team lead. So that has had a very big impact on the continuity because they have been replaced. That's the second challenge, they replaced staff. They do not have the knowledge, the experience and the skills that the team, the original team had. So these have been the main two main challenges. And I would like to add a third. The third challenge is also the fact that water safety planning is not a key performance indicator for my utility. It has not been a key performance indicator for my utility. It's only since 2022, just last year, that our regulator has now made it a key performance indicator. And the implication of that, the reason why that is a challenge is because if it is not a key performance indicator, it means that it doesn't even have a place with respect to reporting. So the chief managers or the regional leadership in all our regions do not have to report on water safety plan implementation. So these are the three main challenges that we have had. And with respect to the measures that we have taken, we have now completed the regional sensitization. We've had to do the regional sensitization after it became a KPI. So we've traveled across the whole country. We have sensitized more than 600 staff and stakeholders. And then also now it is a KPI. So that's a very, very important aspect. And it also is now a standard according to the Ghana standard authority. And the next step, which we are working on is to, we've selected some staff that are going to participate in the modular trainings. And we are ensuring that in order not to have the same problem recurring, we are bringing staff from all over the 15 regions so that when staff are transferred, they go to the new region with the knowledge and the experience of the water safety plan, the document development. And also we now have a guidance document that has been developed. Assisted by consultants from Australia, Soka, my colleague on the panel was one of them. They have helped us to come up with a guidance document. And that also is going to play a very important role. What it means is that every staff will have this document as a guide. And also the main objective of the training, one of that training is to ensure that each regional team that will participate in the modular training will come out by the end of the training. We expect every team to have a draft at least of the regional water safety plan for at least two of their systems. So these are some of the measures that we have put in place to ensure that we overcome the challenges that we had previously and to move forward with this implementation. Thank you. Thanks very much, Margaret, for sharing some of those insights, some of the challenges that you have faced in the past and how you're trying to overcome them. And hopefully some of the other utilities and municipalities on the call can learn from that, including making sure that you are involving everyone as far as you can. And making it part of people's day-to-day experiences and then incentives like their performance indicators, management contracts and so forth. Thanks for sharing. Ahsoka, I'm going to move over to you and the question I would like to pose to you is, how has water safety planning supported your utility to effectively prepare for and respond to emergency situations, including those related to weather events as well as planning for longer-term climate change? Ahsoka. Thanks, Philip. Hi, everyone. It's great to see nearly 400 participants attending this event. That shows great interest. Yara Valley Water is a world leader in application of water safety plan approach since way back in 1999. And this meant this voluntary approach helped us to implement water safety plans and they became mandatory in the state of Victoria in 2003. We call them risk management plans. Back then, we did have an emergency management framework. However, that framework was not comprehensive in the coverage of safe and clean drinking water. That means water quality. What changes happened since the implementation of the water safety plans? There were significant changes through the implementation of the water safety plans into our emergency management framework. For example, every water treatment plant in Melbourne, so in Melbourne we have a wholesaler and three retail water agencies, a number of water treatment plants, and each of those treatment plants have site-specific emergency response plans. At Yara Valley Water, we have developed an emergency response plan for drinking water quality. We also have emergency response plans for other products or services, such as recycled water, even sewage treatment plants. They are all part of the framework. One thing to remember and very important to note is these documents are not documents sitting in shelves. They are continuously reviewed, literally after every incident, and they are updated on regular updates. If you look at our current emergency response plan for water quality, that incorporates all the learnings from past events. The framework is consistent across all water agencies in Victoria, other stakeholders or agencies who get involved in incidents, such as the police, the environmental protection authority, emergency services, and various other government departments. We all talk the same language when we are out of our comfort zone in an incident and emergency situation. How did this help us to manage situations or events related to climate change? Unfortunately, we had quite a large number of events, climate-related events. In 2017, we had a very heavy rainfall event. That was something that we never experienced before. In 2020 and 2021, we had two storm events that were very challenging for the water supply system and also the other systems like sewage systems. We can't forget the pandemic. Of course, we were reasonably prepared to face such incidents. As I said, emergency management, like the water safety plans, is not a static process. Incorporating all the learnings, we have appointed a dedicated emergency management coordinator just soon after those 2020 and 2021 storm-related events. That person coordinates all the emergency activities, working with various government departments within Yara Valley Water, with operational planning, logistics, etc. It's very easy one person coordinating the whole emergency event. Climate change is always challenging, but also emerging contaminants is going to be challenging for all of us. We have what we call a climate adaptation plan. Again, it's part of the state, at a high level, the state climate adaptation plans, but we have our own climate adaptation plans, which includes the water quality. Historically, we've always included current risks. Now with the climate change, we do have to include the future risks related to climate change. From those examples I mentioned, the water safety plan really helped us and will enable you to strengthen the existing emergency management frameworks. Finally, I would like to remind that the success of WSP, whether it's a emergency response plan or WSP as a whole, will always be dependent on how you're operationalizing what you do in the field. That's what we practice every day and the learnings are incorporated into the plans continuously. It's never a static document. I hope that helps. Thanks, Phillip. Thanks, Ahsoka. We're also emphasizing the fact that these emergency plans should be living documents and that everybody on the ground needs to know exactly how they work. All the practitioners need to know how they work so that in an emergency situation, everybody can jointly address the emergency. We're going to move on to our third panel member, Sonabal. The question I'm going to ask you as a Department of Health official is how can governments best support water suppliers with sustained and effective water safety planning? Thank you. Thank you very much, Phillip. Hello again from the Philippines to my co-panelists, Ahsoka and Margaret and Darian, and to IWA team and WHO team or to everyone in this webinar. Hello. Just a short background before I answer that question, Phillip. My organization, the Philippine Department of Health at a national level where I belong has a mandate to formulate policy guidelines and standards pertaining to water safety plan. As of today, we have three national policies on water safety plan. The national policy on water safety plan for all drinking water service providers, where we set a national policy to require all of them, the drinking water service providers in the country to develop and implement water safety plan. Second, we have the guidelines for the review and approval of the water safety plan of drinking water service providers that set the guidelines for the review and approval of the review and approval of the water safety plan, and also the review analysis that we have now. Specifically, on the creation of a review committee of different levels of the national, of the regional, and of the local level and detail procedures in the evaluation and the approval of the review tool. Third, we have now the guidelines for monitoring and auditing That set the guidelines for monitoring the progress of the WSP development of the drinking water service provider. Number two, the purpose of that guideline is to monitor the implementation of the approved WSP. And number three, of course, the auditing on the implementation of the approved WSP. Now on the question on how the government can best support water suppliers with sustained and effective water safety planning. We are currently doing the following first by issuing a certificate of water safety plan acceptance. So this is a very wonderful crafted acceptance that you can display it in your offices or in your utility. So we provided this to the drinking water service provider with an approved, those only with approved water safety plans. This is also an indication that they comply to the policy on the Philippine National Standards of Drinking Water. The latest addition that we have is the 2017 edition where water safety plan is one of the very important provision or provision that you have to comply. For example, for the water districts that we have in the Philippines around like 600 functional one or a bridge of 600. Their compliance to the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water is included as a KPI or Key Performance Indicator. In the evaluation whether the personnel at that water utility or at that water district may receive the performance based bonus or the PBB. So other incentives and mechanism for other water service providers are still to be developed. Second, we're planning to do audit of water supply providers with approved water safety plans every three years. This will be based on our guidelines for the monitoring and auditing of WSP. Third and lastly, we're currently activating all drinking water quality monitoring committees or abbreviation quite long like LDWQMC. Nationwide to strengthen the local drinking water quality surveillance or the LDWQS. So we have these administrative issuance jointly by the Department of Health and the Department of Interior and Local Government because at the Department of Health we cannot do this alone. So we need another department so that this policy will be implemented down at the local level. So we have the Department of Interior and Local Government. So we have these joint issuance. We will ensure that all water water service provider in the country will develop their water safety plan as required by our issuance or administrative order on water safety plan. Now it's good that in the Philippines we will be tapping the existing we call the Enter Agency Committee on Environmental Health or ISA to push nationwide the water quality monitoring which will oblige all water service providers to test their water and ensure that the water that their water meet the Philippine national standards for drinking water. I think that's all. Thank you very much. Thank you Sonabal. And I think also for sharing some of those insights related to incentives and how we can make sure that there's healthy competition amongst utilities and sharing of good practices amongst peers and so forth. So thanks for sharing that and hopefully some other countries on the call can also learn from those experience. We're going to ask Daryl, our fourth panelist to answer the last question that we have for the panel, which is Daryl, can you share your reflections on the issues that the panel has raised so far and how the second edition of the Water Safety Planning Manual can help to address these practical challenges. I think some of these questions might also be coming through in the Q&A that I'm seeing so far. So thank you. Over to you Daryl. Okay. Thanks. A couple of issues that Sonabal and Margaret raised about KPIs. I think that's a really good example of something that is just touched on in the manual. What I didn't say is that part two of the manual has, which is like an introduction and a quick guide to WSP's has about three, two or three pages on examples of what makes a successful WSP. So we've listed about sort of 10 or 12 sort of headline issues with some little summary notes. And while that won't cover everything, a lot of the examples that they've said it probably is picked up there. So that part two of the manual may have some good tips for people trying to, you know, face some of the real life challenges. And the issue that Ahsoka mentioned about the WSP's and emergency response plans and so on that the WSP is not replacing them. I think it's really important. And one of the things we do in the manual is highlight that the WSP isn't meant to replace everything. It's there as an overriding umbrella is the way to approach things. And so we're not there to sort of start from scratch and write again. So if you have existing management systems like ERPs, you basically strengthen them and the WSP should be a good prompt to try and do that. I think that's all I can comment on now and we'll wait till some other questions and answers later. Thanks, Phillip. Thanks, Darryl. Yeah, so so far I think we've got about 20 questions that we can look at. We are rapidly running out of time. And just to note that if we don't manage to answer the questions within the session, there will be answered and we will be posting to all those registered for the webinar. So you will receive answers to all of your questions. The moment that most people have been waiting for and I saw that there were a couple of questions as to when can we actually get the second edition of the manual. You can see on the screen, there is a website address and also if you have a mobile device, you could just scan the QR barcode and that should take you to the link where you can download the second edition of the water safety planning manual. With that, we are going to move over to some of the questions that have been posed and we're going to probably have about five minutes of questions. And I'm going to perhaps just ask the first question which is related to continuity of supply, so it's probably around intermittent supply versus continuity of supply. Is it given attention in the new manual? Because in my opinion, the question notes here continue to will affect the quality of water delivered to the consumer. Any of our panelists, do you want to answer that? I'll have a quick answer to that. Yes, it is mentioned. We have one of the tool boxes is I suggested issues to think about when you're doing the system description. Intermittent supplies is definitely one of the issues there. And in the worked example, intermittent supplies are also there. So that's just a very short answer to that. Great. A question here from Daniel. Darryl is correct that number one, the plan doesn't control the risk. And number two, that once the plan is written, many conclude that the job is done. How does this revision help to resolve that implementation problem in ways that the previous WSP manual did not? Or is it really still down to the regulators and the water suppliers? I'll have another. Good question. Thanks, Daniel. I guess at an overall level, what the manual tries to do is to give a lot more examples and illustrations of specific implementation activities. So it'd be pretty hard to pick up the manual now and not understand that going beyond the plan, beyond the system assessment is really part of a WSP. And we've done that by having particular sections within each module that talk about that. And that diagram, which keeps popping up, which WSP and Action Diagram, we hope reinforces that need. But as for whether it's really up to governments or the water suppliers, the answer is yes. It still is up to governments and water suppliers to make sure it's done. And what our contribution to that is to make sure it's really well understood with specific examples of what actions the implementation really looks like. That's my best attempt at that one. Great. Thank you, Daryl. Another question from Mark, integrating climate change is straightforward, but please expand on equity considerations. Is this bringing in the concept of assurance of supply to all water users with different priorities, essentially all competing for the same finite water resource? Can you just expand a little bit on equity? OK, well, there is a whole publication on equity, but essentially equity is saying both if you're looking at an individual water supply system, or whether you're looking at a whole collection of water supply systems to make sure that safe water is delivered to everybody, not just some. And how you approach that will obviously vary according to your context. So this means that at all stages, sorry, most stages or most modules of the WSP, there are particular questions to ask about equity for all the users and so on. So I think my suggestion is that you have a look at the WSP equity guidelines for more guidance there. But in overview, it's something that should be integrated and mainstreamed in every aspect, whether it's a single WSP or multiple WSP. All right, thank you. We have a question here from Margaret from Elvis. First, he thanks Margaret for input. And he asks, to the best of his knowledge, the Ghana Water Company Limited takes care of urban water supply and delivering Ghana. And Margaret, are you aware of any plans to implement water safety plans in the rural settings where most people are dependent on mechanical boreholes and limited systems? Margaret? Margaret, are you there? Hello, can I hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, thank you very much. Yes, it is true that Ghana Water Company Limited is responsible for the urban communities in Ghana. And we have another company in Ghana, we have just two utilities, one for the urban sector and the other one that is community water and sanitation agency. They are responsible for rural water supply. And interestingly, they are ahead of the urban utility. They have actually moved forward with the implementation of water safety plans. It is now one of the indicators that the regional management and other staff signed to. So they are way ahead of us. They have implemented it in many of their systems. Great. Thank you. Perhaps, Daryl, more questions for you. Perhaps you can help us. Firstly, we seem to have quite a few questions about will the water safety planning manual second edition be available in different languages? And then, are there any plans for training packages around this second edition? Do you have any insights there you can share? Yep. As far as the languages go, yeah, the translation into some other languages is a top priority for WHO. And planning is already underway for that, initially focusing on French and Spanish with additional languages to follow soon. I don't have a timeline on that. I'm asked for training packages. Yes, there are some training packages being developed right now, which will work around for the second edition. First of all, it's being done as an introduction, but then the plan is to roll that out. And that will be done probably through WHO, open WHO sort of web services. Great. Thank you. And I'm sure WHO can provide more information on other plans they have there. Wonderful. Ladies and gentlemen, we are running out of time. I know we have not addressed all of the questions yet in the session. But as I've mentioned earlier, we will be answering all the questions and we will be sharing the answers with everyone that is registered for the webinar. We are going to move over to closing the session. Just a reminder of some upcoming IWA webinars. On the 8th of March, we will have a webinar on empowering women in water perspectives from the African region. So please register for that event. And then also on the 5th of April, there will be a young water professionals event that's happening and how you can actually create an IWA Young Water Professionals chapter within your country. Also a reminder that if you would like to join the IWA network of water professionals, there's a discount code that you can use for that. So in order to close the session, unfortunately, Kala, the executive director of the IWA could not join us live, but he did take the time and energy to put together a little video for us. So I'm going to ask William to play that video for us now. Over to you, William. Thanks. Thank you. I might say what a pleasure it is to be part of this event. As we bring things to a close, I would first like to thank all of the panelists for their excellent thought-provoking discussions. Just as importantly, I would like to thank you all, the participants, for being part of the launch of the second edition of the Water Safety Plan Manual. The backdrop to why we are here today is that despite the many global efforts aimed at achieving SDG 6.1, the challenges arising from population growth, rapid urbanization and changing weather patterns continue to hamper the provision of sustainable supplies of drinking water. As such, there is a growing pressure on utilities to effectively manage water resources to ensure access both in terms of quality and quantity in the face of these challenges. Today, water safety plans are considered the most effective tool for maintaining safe supply of public drinking water. Their use ensures water is safe for human consumption and meets regulatory water health standards. In 2004, water safety plans were included in the third edition of the WHO's Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality and the International Water Association's Bond Charter for Safe Drinking Water. Since then, a significant number of water suppliers have implemented water safety plans directly, and national governments are now promoting their implementation, including them in national legislation. Since 2001, IWA, with the support from WHO, have coordinated projects supporting the implementation of water safety plans in various countries across Africa. These include Pekina Faso, Uganda, Ghana, Guinea and Tanzania, with Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Senegal being among other examples. These projects have not only improved water supply safety through the implementation of plans, they have also built a critical mass of expertise, tools and case studies to catalyze large-scale water safety plan implementation across sub-Saharan Africa. It has been 14 years since the development of the first water safety plan manual, which was released in 2009. Today, we are happy to hear that over 93 countries worldwide have implemented water safety plans. We believe many lessons have been learned since the first manual was completed, and these are no doubt points on which clarification would be useful. So considering the changing times and advances in technologies coupled with the evolving global challenges, an update of the manual was considered timely. The second edition reflects the many years of practical experience from the global application. Equity and climate considerations have been integrated to help ensure more resilient drinking water supply, more case studies have been included. In addition, the layout of this second edition has been simplified. We therefore believe this new edition will go a long way in supporting users both at the early stages of water safety plan development, as well as those who are already implementing them. As valuable as the manual is, and with water safety plans now being adopted worldwide, it is important that stakeholders fully understand each of the modules to ensure successful implementation. With this in mind, a global training package for this edition will be launched in the middle of the year that will help facilitate training. Also, we are planning to hold a more in-depth session to further discuss the manual at the upcoming IWA Water and Development Congress in Kigali, Rwanda in December 2023. Lastly, we are also considering translating the manual into French and Spanish later in the year and perhaps other additional languages after that. We encourage everyone to embrace this new manual. The launch of the second edition is an important landmark in the progress of water safety plans. I would like to finish by taking this opportunity to express gratitude to our partners from WHO for their support and also to the National Institute of Public Health Japan for their continued financial support.  So finally, congratulations to everyone on this great achievement. I look forward to many, many more great success stories. Thank you and I wish you all well.


Hello, my name is Jean-François Lass, I'm a PhD and I'm actually the CEO and the CSO of EncoreDNA. And beside me, you have Jean-Paul de Tiff, who is the CEO of EncoreDNA. Actually, EncoreDNA is a teragnostic company who is dedicated to patient care and cancer. Our goal is to provide the patient with the best treatment possibilities as we can. And to do that, we developed some specific solutions which are based on the analysis of the tumor biopsies. What makes us a bit different from the other competitor or other solution on the market is that we combine the analysis of the sequencing using the next generation sequencing on DNA as well as a bundle of additional tests made by IRCs and other technologies. And actually, we have been created five years ago. And during that time, we had the opportunity to perform or to analyze more than 3,000 patients. And in order to demonstrate the benefits of our solution to the patient, we perform an analysis of more than 1,000 patients, where actually we look at what were the benefits to either perform the sequencing alone, the some immunostechemistry alone, or the bundle of both. Because as you know, or you probably know, actually there are different companies that claim that next generation sequencing and the analysis of the DNA in standalone might find or might be some kind of holy grail for the patient. And we just recently have been accepted in Oncotarget for this publication. And the results were quite striking. What we found is that about only 30% of the patient analyzed present a mutation in their DNA that might have been useful for our treatment. On the other hand, we had about 70% of the patient having an alteration led by the immunostechemistry or the other tests that might have led to a treatment. And actually, when we gather both, we reach a treatment decision or a benefit for the patient close to 94%, which is really amazing and which really demonstrates the benefit of combining those both approach in one analysis. Then, based on those results, actually we ask in blind. So it was really based on a computer formula sent by another computer to the oncologist whether this test was useful for the patient. Did they follow our guidelines, not follow our guidelines? And what were the outcomes? And what we observe actually is that more than 60% of the oncologist actually follow our guidelines. About 35% of the oncologist didn't follow but not because they didn't believe in the solution but because actually the treatment we advise was not available or not affordable in some countries and a very few percentage of the oncologist didn't follow our guidelines. And the reason was that they had other evidences or what was written in the literature didn't convince them. And then we look at the overall survivor, meaning that okay, they decided to treat the patient and what were the outcomes for the patient. And actually what we observe is that 50% of the patient have an overall survivor of about six months which is in the range of what you can expect with heavily treated metastatic patient. But very interesting is that about 25% of the patient had an overall survivor above one year meaning that our tests were useful for those patients to live at least twice longer than what is usually observed based on the classical approach for heavily treated metastatic patient. So this is really interesting and which really demonstrate at least a first proof of concept that how this combination and how those kind of solutions and our solution might be related to a benefit for the patient. So the next step will be of course to see okay, can we increase these benefits and also can we design a new clinical trial in order to demonstrate that our solution have a clear benefit for the patients and especially associated with the immunotherapies. Because immunotherapies it's the new way to treat the patient. And what is observed in routine is that 40% of the patient don't answer the immunotherapy but they have the marker which are supposed to give them a good prediction to answer immunotherapies. That's why we developed a new way to analyze those patients and we thanks to our personalized immunogram which is a bundle of five biomarkers within our solutions. And we set up a different clinical trials called an Archie project where actually we will compare the prediction of our solution compare to the final results observed by the oncologist. And what is really important is that it will be a prospective clinical trial. So not a retrospective one anymore but really a prospective one where we will really compare the real life of what would have been the outcomes of the patient based on our prediction on it.