The world is facing a water quality challenge due to serious and increasing water pollution, both in developed and developing countries. This poses a growing risk to public health, food security, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. It is urgent to assess where water quality is inadequate or under threat and to incorporate the need for good water quality into the concept of water security.
Observational data, as it is provided by GEMS/Water, is required to assess and understand the global and regional patterns of water quality, both in the past and in the present. The knowledge derived from such assessments is essential for developing, monitoring and evaluating sustainable water resources management strategies that will help decision makers to implement policies to protect vital ecosystem services and work towards the achievement of the many water-related targets in the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. These evidence informed policies include source control, waste treatment, ecosystems management and new forms of local and global government.
GEMS/Water was established in 1978 to collect world-wide water quality data for assessments of status and trends in global inland water quality. unep.org
