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 water-related 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

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