Transcript Water Quality and Freshwater Ecosystems - Cap-Net

Water Quality and Freshwater
Ecosystems
Joakim Harlin, Freshwater Ecosystems Unit (FEU)
Ecosystems Division, UN Environment
Cap-Net / GEMS Water Meeting, 8 November 2016
Freshwater ecosystems provide essential services –
all depend on water quality
Industry – Energy – Food
Climate change
resilience
Biodiversity
and Recreation
Drinking water, human
health and wellbeing
Quick facts about freshwater ecosystems
• Freshwater ecosystems such as wetlands, rivers, aquifers and
lakes contain less than 1% of all water on Earth.
• Yet they provide direct essential services to humans such as
the water used for drinking, agriculture, energy, recreation and
tourism.
• In addition, freshwater ecosystems provide indirect services
such as habitats for fish and other aquatic lifeforms, water
purification and climate resilience.
• To function properly, freshwater ecosystems require both
enough quantity and quality of water.
Threats to ecosystem water quality
• Freshwater ecosystems are highly vulnerable to natural
disasters, with the vast majority (over 90%) being waterrelated
• Exacerbated by climate change – severe flood and
drought, more extreme, more unpredictable and more
frequent
• Freshwater ecosystems also bear the brunt of human
activities – pollution through pathogens (untreated
wastewater from sewer systems) organic matter
(including agricultural run-off) and salinity (irrigation,
domestic wastewater and runoff of mines)
Extent of the water quality threat
Recent assessment by UNEP in 2016 (A Snapshot of the
World’s Water Quality) shows how pollution is affecting
rivers in Latin America, Africa and Asia:
• 1/3 of all rivers affected by sever pathogenic pollution
• 1/7 of all rivers affected by severe organic pollution
• 1/10 of all rivers affected by severe and moderate salinity
Need for a Worldwide Water Quality
Assessment
More information is needed, and more needs to be done to
understand the extent of the water quality problem.
A UN-Water Analytical Brief calls for a Worldwide Quality
Assessment will be launched at Budapest Water Summit this
month.
A WWQA would:
• Overcome current data limitations
• Enable policy makers to grasp the extent of the problem
• Enable the setting of quality targets for water-related
ecosystems
Thank you