Effective communication with the public and active dissemination of information are essential elements in the development and implementation of environmental and health policies. Electronic information technologies, and especially the internet, are opening up new opportunities for providing the public with streamlined, low-cost and timely access to environmental and health information.
Article 9(1) of the 1999 Draft Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, states: The Parties shall take steps designed to enhance the awareness of all sectors of the public regarding: (a) The importance of, and the relationship between, water management and public health; (b) The rights and entitlements to water and corresponding obligations under private and public law of natural and legal persons and institutions, whether in the public sector or the private sector, as well as their moral obligations to contribute to the protection of the water environment and the conservation of water resources.