Challenges for global water quality monitoring and assessment in the context of the new Sustainable Development Goal for Water, SDG 6

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1 Challenges for global water quality monitoring and assessment in the context of the new Sustainable Development Goal for Water, SDG 6 Deborah Chapman, UN Environment GEMS/Water Capacity Development Centre, University College Cork, Ireland

2 The GEMS/Water programme The Global Environment Monitoring System for Water GEMS/Water was established in 1978 with the purpose of generating a database of global water quality data for global and regional assessments 2014 United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) Resolution 1/9 gave a mandate for UN Environment to revitalize the programme with support from the Governments of Germany and Ireland

3 The GEMS/Water programme: Data Centre GEMS/Water promotes and supports water quality monitoring and assessment Data Centre Creation of a more user friendly data collection and analysis system Collection of new water quality data Providing data for global reports Exploring new sources of water quality data

4 Challenge: Data availability for global and regional assessments UNEP-Region: Africa Asia and the Pacific Europe Latin America and the Caribbean North America West Asia Totals # participating Countries # Stations # Values

5 The GEMS/Water programme: Capacity Development Centre GEMS/Water promotes and supports water quality monitoring and assessment Capacity Development Centre Training in the collection of high quality, reliable water quality data that can be used for national, regional and global assessments Advice and assistance with monitoring programme design and network development

6 Global water quality: moving towards sustainability The United Nations General Assembly approved the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development in September 2015 Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all 17 Goals Targets Indicators

7 SDG 6 is divided into six targets and eleven indicators Safely managed drinking water services Safely managed sanitation and hygiene services Wastewater safely treated Good ambient water quality Water use efficiency Level of water stress Integrated water resources management Transboundary basin area with water cooperation Water-related ecosystems 6.a.1 6.b.1 Water- and sanitation-related official development assistance that is part of a government coordinated spending plan Participation of local communities in water and sanitation management Ecosystems 6.5 Water management 6.a Drinking water 6.a and 6.b Cooperation and participation 6.4 Water use and scarcity b Sanitation and hygiene 6.3 Wastewater and water quality

8 Target 6.3: Indicator Good ambient water quality Target 6.3 links pollution, wastewater and water quality By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally 6.3 Wastewater and water quality

9 SDG Indicator Good ambient water quality Ambient waters are rivers, lakes, reservoirs and groundwaters Good ambient water quality does not damage ecosystem function or present a risk to human health. It should not be severely impacted by human activities It should support a balanced ecosystem, including fisheries It should not present a risk to human health when used untreated for activities such as water contact recreational activities

10 Helping countries towards sustainable management of water and wastewater UN Water: Integrated Monitoring Initiative (GEMI) 1. Develop methodologies and tools to monitor SDG 6 global indicators 2. Raise awareness at national and global levels about SDG 6 monitoring 3. Enhance country capacity in monitoring (technical and institutional) 4. Compile country data and report on global progress towards SDG 6

11 Challenges to monitoring water quality at global scale Global comparability Feasibility for countries with limited financial and technical resources Need to detect a range of impacts on water quality Sensitive enough to highlight trends Be useful for countries for their own water management activities

12 Development of indicator Water quality index developed by GEMS/Water in 2007 modified for global use 2016 Index was tested in 2016 in five countries but only two (Uganda and Senegal) attempted to implement the methodology 2017 Feedback and review from workshops and individual comments resulted in a simplified index for implementation and baseline data collection

13 Indicator Step by step methodology for assessing ambient water quality Good quality is assessed in relation to target values for easy to measure physico-chemical parameters Countries use or set their own target values for each parameter For baseline global reporting in 2017, five water quality parameters (DO, EC, N, P, ph) have been recommended (three for groundwater: ph, nitrate, EC) Monitoring data for selected parameters at each station on a water body are compared with target values to determine percentage compliance for each water body. Good water quality is represented by 80% compliance or more. Indicator is reported as percentage of water bodies at national level that reach good water quality

14 Baseline data collection: challenges experienced to date Difficulties with the methodology: No target values Lack of data for one or more parameters Inadequate monitoring networks: Spatial coverage Frequency of measurements Capacity and resource issues Baseline data report due early 2018

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