30 August 2016: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report that recommends treating wastewater to address increasing water pollution in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The report stresses the role of good water quality in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), observing that pollution of surface waters places populations at risk of contracting life-threatening diseases, damages food systems, harms economies and contributes to inequalities in access to water.
‘Snapshot of the World’s Water Quality’ identifies the expansion and intensification of agriculture, an increase in untreated sewage discharged into rivers and lakes, increased economic activity and population growth as key causes of increases in surface water pollution across Africa, Asia and Latin America. The report finds that organic pollution and pathogen pollution rose over 50% between 1990 and 2010 on the three continents while salinity pollution rose nearly one-third.
According to the report, contamination of surface water poses a major threat to human health, particularly in countries where over 90% of the population uses surface water as their primary source of drinking water, meaning that this contaminated water is also used to prepare food and irrigate crops. UNEP estimates that up to 164 million people in Africa are at risk from diseases associated with pathogens in water, such as cholera, typhoid and other diseases. In Asia and Latin America, UNEP estimates 134 million and 25 million people, respectively, are at risk.
The report recommends: improving water monitoring and assessment to understand the scale of water pollution around the world; identifying polluted areas; and linking actions to protect and restore water quality with efforts to achieve the SDGs. The report further recommends treating polluted water before it enters waterbodies, restoring wetlands to remove pollutants and carrying out other actions to protect ecosystems, and recycling wastewater for irrigation.
“Access to quality water is essential for human health and human development. Both are at risk if we fail to stop the pollution,” observed UNEP’s Chief Scientist, Jaqueline McGlade. She stressed that society has the tools to address water pollution and urged tackling “what is slowly becoming one of the greatest threats to human health and development around the world.”
The report is a pre-study for a World Water Quality Assessment (WWQA). The report analyzed: the types, intensity and sources of water pollution; potential impacts related to human health and food security; water quality data and information gaps; and future monitoring strategies. On data and information gaps, the report finds that the density of water quality measuring stations in Africa is 100 times lower than the density elsewhere in the world. It therefore recommends expanding the collection, distribution and analysis of water quality data through the Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) Water Programme. [UNEP Press Release] [Snapshot of the World’s Water Quality] [Executive Summary] [Publication Webpage] [GEMS Website]