Water quality monitoring pre+post-2015

6th Session of Joint Task Force on Environmental Indicators

UNECE, Palais des NationsGeneva, 30 October 2012

Rifat Hossain (hossainr@who.int) Water Sanitation Hygiene & HealthWorld Health Organization

2012-10-30

Pre+Post-2015

Knowledge gap: Levels of services

Total population Access to improved

Piped water systems

Reliable

Safe water (WHO guideline compliance)

Sustainability (environment,

ecology)

Ideal Ideal systemsystem

Affordable

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

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

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

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

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

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 improved drinking-water source (urban + rural)

MDG target + Indicators

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”

Improved/unimproved: safe/unsafe

Piped into dwelling, plot or yard

Public tap/standpipe

Tube well/borehole

Protected dug well

Protected spring

Rainwater collection

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)

UN

IMP

RO

VE

DIM

PR

OV

ED

If constructed and used properly these sources should provide good quality water

But…

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

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

Which are possible Sustainable Development Goals or Targets?

Universe of targets and indicators

Targets and indicators of global relevanceTargets and indicators proposed for global monitoringTargets and indicators for SDG framework

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

Quality, quality…quantity?

Urban Rural

Urban-Rural disparities (2010) Improved water: 93% vs. 44%, safe water at home: 45% vs. 0.2%

Health impacts, climate variability etc.?

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

Thank you!Thank you!

JMP Web Site::

www.wssinfo.orgwww.wssinfo.org