Water quality monitoring pre+post-2015

1. Water quality monitoring pre+post-2015 6th Session of Joint Task Force on Environmental Indicators UNECE, Palais des Nations Geneva, 30 October 2012 Rifat Hossain (hossainr@who.int) Water Sanitation Hygiene & Health World Health Organization Pre+Post-2015

2. Knowledge gap: Levels of services Ideal system Total population Access to improved Piped water systems Sustainability (environment, ecology) Safe water (WHO guideline compliance) Affordable Reliable

3. WQ monitoring … • MDG monitoring • Need for water quality monitoring • Lack of comparable data • Monitoring done with proxy indicator • JMP has addressed this through • Rapid Assessment Surveys (2003-2006) • JMP Task Force on Water Quality monitoring • Task Force recommendations • Relevant WQ parameters at the global level: • E-Coli, Arsenic and Fluoride and perhaps also nitrate • Tools to monitor: • More RADWQ • WQ testing through household surveys • Data from regulators

4. WQ monitoring issues… • MDG target met for water • JMP announcement: demand for info about quality of water • 783 million without improved water: several billion without safe water? • What about risk assessment? • Relevant pending issues from TF recommendations • More RADWQ: handbook finalized • WQ testing through household surveys: MICS and DHS pilots • Post-2015 • UN resolution: 64/292, recognized the right to safe and clean drinking-water and sanitation as a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights • WHO resolution A64/24, also promoted safe drinking-water • Focus on WQ in water thematic working group of post-2015

5. Criteria for WQ indicators • A good indicator • unambiguously measures to provide an approximation of reality that is as accurate as needed • Considerations for determining WQ indicators: • Easily measurable • Cost efficient • Clearly defined • Verifiable • Acceptable • Policy relevant • Developed with participation • Purpose of having a PROXY: • To collect information that has relevance to what is sought, when what is sought cannot be measured directly

6. Additional criteria for JMP WQ indicators • Global: • Available for a limited number of countries • Goes back to the MDG base-line year 1990 • Availability even less, mostly recent • Comparability across countries and over time • Challenging because of non-comparable information

7. JMP relies on survey and census data Household surveys using cluster sampling: DHS Demographic and Health Survey MICS Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey LSMS Living Standard Measurement Study CWIQ Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire WHS World Health survey HBS Household Budget Survey Etc. & National census

8. MDG target + Indicators MDG 7 Target 7c: • Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation Indicator to monitor (proxy for access to safe drinking-water): • Proportion of the population that uses an improveddrinking-water source (urban + rural)‏ An improved drinking water source is: “a source that by the nature of its construction adequately protects the source from outside contamination in particular with fecal matter”

9. Improved/unimproved: safe/unsafe If constructed and used properly these sources should provide good quality water • Piped into dwelling, plot or yard • Public tap/standpipe • Tube well/borehole • Protected dug well • Protected spring • Rainwater collection IMPROVED • Unprotected dug well • Unprotected spring • Cart with small tank/drum • Tanker truck • Surface water (river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal, irrigation canal)‏ • Bottled water (unless 2nd Improved source) UNIMPROVED

10. But…

11. Rapid Assessment of Drinking-water Quality (RADWQ) To overlay water quality information (quality factor) on JMP data on the use of improved sources of drinking-water: • Cluster sampled surveys of water points (to match with JMP data) • An additional 10% sub-sample at household level (to see the degree of contamination during transport and storage): high degree of correlation of water quality sampled at POC and at POU • RADWQ tested microbiological, physical/chemical parameters + sanitary inspections • Five country reports available on JMP website

12. Post-2015 Challenge • Can we formulate a set of post-2015 goal or target(s) with indicators that appeal enough to the politicians and which are significantly different and more ambitious than our current target? • For what do we want to get support from our Ministers? from UNSGAB? from the UN-SG? post-2015? • Tension: Ideal & Normative vs. Practical & Measurable & Achievable

13. Which are possible Sustainable Development Goals or Targets? Universe of targets and indicators Targets and indicators of global relevance Targets and indicators proposed for global monitoring Targets and indicators for SDG framework

14. Preliminary outcomesfrom post-2015 water working group- • Proposed goal: • Safe, Sustainable Drinking Water for All • Proposed targets: • By 2030, EVERYBODY has equitable access to a basic drinking water service at home. • To halve, by 2030, the proportion of people, including disadvantaged groups, without equitable access to a higher water service at home. • By 2030, EVERYBODY has equitable access to a basic water [sanitation and hygiene] services in their schools and health facilities. • Water [sanitation and hygiene] services are delivered in a financially, operationally institutionally, and environmentally sustainable manner. DRAFT

15. Quality, quality…quantity? Urban Rural Urban-Rural disparities (2010) Improved water: 93% vs. 44%, safe water at home: 45% vs. 0.2%

16. Health impacts, climate variability etc.? Ref: Atlas of Health and Climate, WHO & WMO 2012, http://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/atlas/en/index.html

17. Thank you! JMP Web Site: www.wssinfo.org