The new Status Report on Global Water Quality has been introduced on the occasion of the World Water Week 2021 in Stockholm. The report presents the most recent data collected in the second reporting period 2020 for Indicator 6.3.2 on water quality within the scope of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
It shows that the way of handling water quality data collection varies largely by global standards. There are often big data gaps, especially in poorer countries. According to the report, more than 3 billion people worldwide could be at risk, given that the quality of their freshwater ecosystems is unknown. On the whole, data from 96 countries were reported; the water quality of 60% of these water bodies was rated as “good”. These were distributed across all regions of the world.
The report presents various acceleration measures intended to speed up implementation of target 6.3 for a good global water quality by 2030. These include the expansion of data infrastructure, goal-oriented capacity development, closing of financial gaps in the water sector and the development of novel, innovative approaches in science and by means of integrated water resources development.
Since 2014, the GEMS/Water Data Centre located at the ICWRGC has been involved in indicator 6.3.2 reporting as an implementation partner.
