Freshwater scarcity ranks among the most urgent environmental challenges of this century. To improve water management and measure the achievement of internationally agreed goals on water and sanitation, countries and organisations need access to relevant information.
The data and analyses presented in Water Quality for Ecosystem and Human Health are from GEMStat, the global water quality database created by UNEP’s GEMS/Water Programme, the only programme in the UN system exclusively dedicated to monitoring and assessing environmental water quality. Drawing on examples from around the world, Water Quality for Ecosystem and Human Health presents assessments of current water quality status and trends. It also provides an introduction to a diverse range of global water quality issues, including approaches to their identification, analysis and resolution. The wide range of environmental pressures in different countries and regions, and the reality of limited resources available for monitoring, assessment and remediation, make it difficult to obtain a global picture of water quality. However, the publication highlights a number of salient issues. On the negative side, human activities are the principal cause of deteriorating quality of water resources, even in remote environments, and impaired aquatic ecosystems can negatively impact human health and socio-economic progress. It is clear that new threats to aquatic ecosystems, for example by pharmaceuticals and personal care products, require immediate attention by regulatory authorities at all levels. On the positive side, successful procedures have been developed for restoring aquatic ecosystems, including remedying damage caused by acidification and eutrophication.
To build on these achievements and track the effectiveness of policies and interventions, both baseline data and long-term monitoring of aquatic ecosystems are a priority. The GEMS/Water Programme provides a vital contribution to monitoring progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goal and World Summit on Sustainable Development targets on water and sanitation. Current pH data and assessment demonstrate that such targets can be met. This is only one example, but it does show that, at least in some parts of the world, the quality of water resources is improving. As such, Water Quality for Ecosystem and Human Health provides encouragement to continue, and increase, our efforts to protect and improve our water resources for ecosystem health and human well-being.
