World Water Day is here! Check out our global take on water quality today

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of sustainable management of freshwater resources.

Pressure on the world’s water resources is constantly on the rise. The UNEP-DHI Centre on Water and Environment recently dedicated its efforts to investigating the state of water quality in both fresh and marine water, summed up in the 4th World Water Development Report (WWDR-4). The report was launched at the World Water Forum in Marseille earlier this month.

Good water quality is an important yet vulnerable developmental asset and essential for maintaining eco-system health. Water quality is inextricably linked with water quantity. Moreover, socioeconomic development is closely connected with water quality and the costs of poor water quality can be significant, e.g. through degradation of ecosystems, health-related costs and their impacts on economic activities. DHI’s contribution to the report provides the most up-to-date global overview of water quality, as observed through the lens of “Managing water under uncertainty and risk”.

The whole report, published in three separate volumes, can be downloaded here. Chapter 16: ‘State of the resource: Quality’ is located in volume 2 – ‘Knowledge Base’.