Publications
Towards a Worldwide Assessment of Freshwater
Quality
Type: Policy and Analytical Briefs
Publisher: UN Water
Date of Publication: 28 November, 2016
No. of Pages: 40
The world is facing a water quality
challenge. Serious and increasing
pollution of fresh water in
both developing and developed
countries poses a growing risk
to public health, food security,
biodiversity and other ecosystem
services. Pollution is strongly
linked to economic development
– with population growth and the
expansion of agriculture, industry
and energy production all in turn
producing wastewater, much of which goes into surface
and groundwater bodies uncontrolled or untreated.
Despite recent preliminary assessments of the current
worldwide water quality situation, the magnitude of the
challenge is still unknown. Better information is required
on where the issues lie and what is needed to effectively
and efficiently take action to protect and improve water
quality.
This Analytical Brief provides information about past
assessments, outlines the challenge but also provides
a plan for a world water quality assessment, which, if
undertaken, would provide decision makers with the
information they need to address this challenge. The
Analytical Brief also explores the strong linkages between
water quality and the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). SDG 6, “Ensure availability and sustainable
management of water and sanitation for all,” includes
a specific target (6.3) dedicated to water quality. Central
questions include: ‘how can the water quality target be
achieved?’; ‘How will worsening water pollution affect
SDGs for health, food security, and biodiversity, among
others?’; Or, conversely, ‘how can actions to protect and
enhance water quality help meet other SDGs?’.
UN-Water GLAAS 2017: Financing universal water,
sanitation and hygiene under the Sustainable
Development Goals
The GLAAS 2017 report
presents an analysis of the
most reliable and up-to-date
data from 75 countries and
25 external support agencies
on issues related to financing
universal access to water and
sanitation under the SDGs. Safe
drinking-water and sanitation
are crucial to human welfare, by
supporting health and livelihoods
and helping to create healthy
environments. Drinking unsafe
water impairs human health through illnesses such as
diarrhea, and untreated sewage can contaminate drinking-
water supplies and the environment, creating a heavy
burden on communities.
The State of the World’s Children 2016: A fair
chance for every child
Author: UNICEF
Price: Free
No. of pages: 180
Publication date: June 2016
Publisher: UNICEF
Every child has the right to
health, education and protection,
and every society has a stake in
expanding children’s opportunities
in life. Yet, around the world,
millions of children are denied a fair chance for no reason
other than the country, gender or circumstances into
which they are born. The State of the World’s Children
2016 argues that progress for the most disadvantaged
children is not only a moral, but also a strategic imperative.
Stakeholders have a clear choice to make: invest in
accelerated progress for the children being left behind,
or face the consequences of a far more divided world
by 2030. At the start of a new development agenda, the
report concludes with a set of recommendations to help
chart the course towards a more equitable world.
The Water, Food, Energy and Climate Nexus
Challenges and an agenda for
action
Global trends of population
growth, rising living standards and
the rapidly increasing urbanized
world are increasing the demand
on water, food and energy. Added
to this is the growing threat of
climate change which will have
huge impacts on water and food
availability. It is increasingly
clear that there is no place in
an interlinked world for isolated solutions aimed at just
one sector. In recent years the “nexus” has emerged as
a powerful concept to capture these inter-linkages of
resources and is now a key feature of policy-making.
This book is one of the first to provide a broad overview
of both the science behind the nexus and the implications
for policies and sustainable development. It brings
together contributions by leading intergovernmental
and governmental officials, industry, scientists and other
stakeholder thinkers who are working to develop the
approaches to the Nexus of water-food-energy and
climate. It represents a major synthesis and state-of-the-art
assessment of the Nexus by major players, in light of the
adoption by the United Nations of the new Sustainable
Development Goals and Targets in 2015.
With a foreword by HRH the Prince of Wales
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • July - August 2017
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