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Even as we pay more attention to the current state, uses and impacts of water resources and identify the challenges that the global community faces in managing them, the flow of information to support this work is drying up rather than growing.
Data on almost every subject related to water issues is usually lacking, unreliable, incomplete or inconsistent. We have learnt that merely collecting data is not enough. It must be brought together, analysed and converted into information and knowledge, then shared widely within and between countries and stakeholders to focus attention on water problems at all scales. It is only when the data has been collected and analysed that we can properly understand the many systems that affect water (hydrological, socio-economic, financial, institutional and political alike), which have to be factored into water governance.
WWAP therefore develops indicators for water resources, its use and management. WWAP had established an Expert Group on Indicators, Monitoring and Databases (EG-IMD), which promoted dialogue between potential users of data and indicators and experts in the provision and interpretation of data. This constituted a complementary process that supported WWAP’s input to the UN-Water Task Force on Indicators, Monitoring and Reporting, coordinated by WWAP, that sought to improve data collection processes in order to refine and develop indicators for the resource, its use and management by making them more robust and more useful. WWAP is also developing a Pilot Study on Indicators (PSI), in partnership with GTN-H (Global Terrestrial Network for Hydrology) and GEO/IGWCO (Water Community of Practice), an innovative methodology for estimating country-level total actual renewable water resources (TARWR).
You will find under this section information on indicators used in the different editions of the UN World Water Development Reports (WWDRs) as well as related work and material.
In the first edition of the World Water Development Report, Water for People, Water for Life, more than 160 indicators were reported on, ranging from the global quantum of water available and withdrawals for human use to compliance with water quality standards for key pollutants and governance mechanisms to support water management.
The number of indicators presented in the second edition of the report, Water, a Shared Responsibility, declined to 62 because there was no systematic process for updating the data used for most of the indicators presented in the first report. Water supply and sanitation has been an exception: the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme has systematically addressed the challenge, investing to ensure a regular flow of updated information on this subsector.
Three years later the production team for the third edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report, Water in a Changing World, was in a similar situation to its predecessors. During preparations for the report, a survey of data providers suggested that new data would be available for only some of the indicators used in the second report. 30 indicators had been updated. Because some indicators included in the second report were identified as not useful by the source agency, 58 indicators were listed.
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You will find under this section information on the UN-Water Task Force on Indicators, Monitoring and Reporting and the set of 15 indicators proposed by the TF to give a snapshot of the water sector.
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To support WWAP and the work of the UN-Water Task Force on Indicators, Monitoring and Reporting (see above), WWAP established in 2008 an Expert Group on Indicators, Monitoring and Databases to identify the key dimensions and indicators of water resources and their management as well as the work required to be able to produce such indicators on an ongoing basis.
You will find under this section information on the group, its composition, the results of its work and a proposed programme to mobilize information to support decision making about water resources.
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In an attempt to better understand overall water availability, the WWAP Pilot Study on Indicators (PSI), in partnership with GTN-H (Global Terrestrial Network for Hydrology) and GEO/IGWCO (Water Community of Practice), has developed an innovative methodology for estimating country-level total actual renewable water resources (TARWR).
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