The Great Water Quality Data Drive
UNEP’s GEMS/Water Programme Launches Global Call to Action For Water Quality Monitoring and Data from All Types Of Water Resources

BURLINGTON/NAIROBI, 5 June 2004 -- This year, World Environment Day, with its theme of Wanted! Seas and Oceans: Dead or Alive? asks that we make a choice as to how we want to treat the Earth’s seas and oceans. How we treat our inland waters will also have an impact on the quality of our marine environment, so it is equally urgent that we must care about the waters that flow to the ocean too.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), through its GEMS/Water Programme, is responding by marking the Day with a new initiative called “The Great Water Quality Data Drive.”

It is estimated that in the year 2000, 1.1 billion people lacked access to safe water and 2.4 billion lacked access to basic sanitation. To tackle these urgent problems, world leaders, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, reaffirmed the pledge they had made in the 2000 Millennium Declaration to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water by 2015. They also committed to halving by 2015 the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation. This recognized the role of sanitation in improving human health and reducing infant and child mortality. Nearly every Government worldwide has since then been focused on how the goals will be achieved.

It is clear, as with any goal, that decision-makers require scientifically sound information with which to base priorities and decisions. In other words, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”. Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland wrote that “politics that disregard science and knowledge will not stand the test of time. Indeed, there is no other basis for sound political decisions than the best available scientific evidence. This is especially true in the fields of resource management and environmental protection”. There is a need for reliable, current data and information about water resources at the global level, for the water and sanitation targets to be measured.

Dr. Richard Robarts, GEMS/Water’s Director, agrees: “The Millennium Development Goals are not limited to water scarcity and access. Water quality is as an important determinant of availability. Water which is not fit for a particular use is effectively unavailable.”

UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer, in remarks today at World Environment Day observances in Barcelona, Spain, also made the link between inland water quality and the protection of the marine environment. He noted that  “Eighty per cent of all pollution in the seas comes from land-based activities. Three-quarters of the world’s megacities are located by the sea, and 40 per cent of the world’s population now lives within 60 kilometres of a coast. … But it is not just coastal dwellers and industries that pollute the oceans. Rivers that run into the sea carry silt, untreated sewage, industrial waste and the assorted rubbish of consumers from far inland. … All this adds up to a picture of an ecosystem in crisis. … The message is simple. We have a choice: act now to save our marine resources, or watch as the rich diversity of life in our seas and oceans declines beyond the point of recovery.”

UNEP’s GEMS/Water Programme is mandated to collect data and information on inland water quality for environmental assessments at regional and global levels. These water quality data cover both surface and groundwater resources. However, there are many gaps that need to be filled, especially in terms of geospatial and temporal coverage. The current state of data distribution was featured in the GEO Yearbook 2003 and specific details are reported country-by-country in GEMS/Water’s Annual Report 2003.

The Great Water Quality Data Drive is a specific call for inland water quality data to all water authorities around the world.

Who should participate? Widespread global data coverage implies that participation by all countries is essential. Key geographic areas include: Central America and the Caribbean islands, South America, Central Asia, Africa and the small Pacific Islands. This initiative is important for all water quality monitoring institutions in every country, including Governments, universities and research centres.

What types of data to submit? Priorities include: metadata, BOD, pathogens, POPs, nitrogen and phosphorus, suspended solids and sediment quality data. However, GEMS/Water’s data warehouse stores and works with over 100 parameters covering chemicals, organics, metals, ions and biota and is expanding to address emerging issues. All data are welcome.

What types of water resources are covered? Data from all types of inland aquatic environments are important for GEMS/Water. These include surface waters such as lakes, reservoirs, streams, rivers, estuaries, and wetlands; and ground water aquifers. Monitoring stations include baseline, impact, trend and flux stations.

What is the process? The Drive is launched today and will be implemented over the next six months, closing in December 2004. Activities and results are part of the Portfolio of Water Actions.

What is the desired result? The main outcome will be a strengthened scientific basis for global and regional water assessments and early warning. The results of the Data Drive will be reported to key UN fora, such as the UNEP Governing Council (February 2005, Nairobi) and the 13th session of the UN’s Commission on Sustainable Development (May 2005, New York).

Water Quality Facts

• Water-related health impacts are well established.
  • less than 1% of all the water in the world is readily available freshwater and no one is making any more of it;
  • at any given time, close to half the population in the developing world are suffering from one or more diseases associated with inadequate provision of water and sanitation services: diarrhea, ascaris, dracunculiasis (guinea worm); hookworm, schistosomiasis (bilharzias, or snail fever) and trachoma;
  • over 2 billion people are infected by schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthes, of whom 300 million suffer serious illness;
  • there is a 77% reduction in schistosomiasis from well-designed water and sanitation interventions; and
  • arsenic in drinking water affects 50 million people in Asia that drink water from deep wells;
  • it has been estimated that people suffering from water-borne diseases occupy half the world’s hospital beds.
• All irrigated land is potentially prone to water logging and salinization if not managed carefully. All agriculture on sloping or steep lands is also potentially prone to soil erosion. The resulting decline in land productivity is very hard to assess but most estimates show very high shares of all land in use being affected. It is estimated that 80 billion pounds of hazardous organopollutants are generated annually by chemical, agricultural, oil, paper, aerospace and other industries in the United States alone.

What does GEMS/Water do?
Since its establishment in 1978, UNEP’s Global Environmental Monitoring System for Water Programme (GEMS/Water) has become the primary source for global water quality data. It is a multi-faceted water science centre oriented towards knowledge development on inland quality issues throughout the world. Major activities include monitoring, assessment and capacity building. The twin goals of the programme are to improve water quality monitoring and assessment capabilities in participating countries, and to determine the status and trends of regional and global water quality.
These goals are implemented through the GEMS/Water data bank, including water quality data and information from more than 106 countries, with over two million entries for lakes, reservoirs, rivers and groundwater systems. By compiling a global database, GEMS/Water adds value to country-level data by contributing to global and regional water quality assessments. The programme also carries out evaluations on a range of water quality issues and methodologies. GEMS/Water data have been used by other organizations, including the UN system and universities around the world.

World Environment Day is considered one of the most important events on the environment calendar, is celebrated every year in more than 125 countries. The occasion serves to inspire political and community action. Governments, individuals, non-governmental organizations, community and youth groups, business, industry and the media undertake a variety of activities aimed at renewing their commitment to the protection of the environment. Individuals and organizations are invited to post details about their planned WED events and learn about what others are doing to celebrate WED across the globe.

For more information about the GEMS/Water programme, please contact: Dr. Richard D. Robarts, Director, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario, L7R 4A6, Canada, tel: + 1- 306-975-6047, fax: + 1-306-975-5143, e-mail: richard.robarts@ec.gc.ca

For additional information on UNEP and World Environment Day 2004, please contact: Eric Falt, UNEP Spokesperson, in Nairobi, on tel: +254-20-62-3292, mobile: +254-733-682656, e-mail: eric.falt@unep.org; or see www.unep.org/wed/2004