IWG-Env Stat- International Work Session on Water Statistics –
Vienna, Austria (20-22 June 2005)
Session 1 - The need for water statistics : information for water policies
"Information needed to
support national sustainable
water policies"
By
Jean-Michel Chéné
United Nations
DESA – Division for Sustainable Development
Objective
On
the
basis
of
Agenda
21
and
CSD
recommendations and on the basis of on-going
researchs :
How to organize a national integrated water
information system and to bring the relevant
statistical knowledge to national policy makers
to manage their own water resources in a
sustainable manner.
Objective
GLOBAL INFORMATION AND DEBATE
NATIONAL WATER POLICY
Decision
Making
Reporting
Water
Management
Integrated
Information
Measurements
Analysis of policy needs
Monitoring
Comptes, models
GIS,evaluat.qual.
3
1.
Water, Information and Sustainable
Development
2.
Information system to support national
sustainable water policies
3.
Constraints to overcome and operational
example
4.
Conclusions and recommendations
4
1.1Rationale for five pillars of an information system
1) An equilibrium or trade-off has to be found
between various factors which contribute, in
general, to the quality of life of human beings in
harmony with natural resources.
 2) However no sustainable development is possible
without eradicating poverty and reducing
disparities in standards of living, in particular for
access to safe water and to sanitation.
 3) Current generations have the right to
development but also the duty to leave to future
generations enough stock of social,
environmental and economic capitals to let them
the possibility to gain, at least, the same level of
quality of life.
5

1a Rationale for five pillars of an information system
1.
Preservation of limited and vulnerable water resources;
2.
access to water and sanitation
3.
integration of economic activities concerned by water
Improve and measure the processes of decisionmaking so as to achieve the progressive integration of
economic, social and environmental issues in the pursuit
of development that is economically efficient, socially
equitable and responsible and environmentally sound :
4. Water governance.
5. Time and space issues : because anticipation of impacts is
in the interest of current and future generations and
knowledge of variability and of spatial distribution of
resources and actions is also a necessity for proper
analysis and management of hydro-systems.
6
1. b Agenda 21 : Needs in integration,
coordination and water resources measurement





Chapter 8, calls for monitoring and evaluating the
development process systematically
establishing systems for integrated environmental and
economic accounting (IEEA)
Chapter 18, fragmentation of responsibilities for water
resources development among sectoral agencies.
Safe water-supplies and environmental sanitation are
vital for protecting the environment, improving health
and alleviating poverty.
Therefore, at subnational and national levels, it is
recommended to strengthen sector monitoring and
information management
7
1. b Agenda 21 : Needs in integration, coordination
and water resources measurement

Water resources assessment constitutes the
practical basis for their sustainable management
and a prerequisite for evaluation of the
possibilities for their development.

Chapter 40 on “information for decision making”.
Methods for assessing interactions between
different sectoral, environmental, demographic,
social and developmental parameters are not
sufficiently developed or applied.
8
1c
Recent recommendations of CSD-13 (04-2005)
develop and strengthen national monitoring systems on the
quantity, quality and use of surface and groundwater
resources at national and local levels, and for measuring
progress towards internationally agreed goals and
targets, as appropriate, as well as for assessing the
impact of climate variability and change on water
resources , through the following actions:





Establishing and managing water information systems;
Installing networks for monitoring water resources and
quality;
Standardizing methodologies and developing monitoring
indicators;
Transferring monitoring technologies adaptable to local
conditions;
Disseminating information to relevant stakeholders.
9
2- Information system to support national
sustainable water policies
10
2- Information system to support national


sustainable water policies
Change within water systems are faster and faster. On the
basis of sound structured information, with dynamic tools,
decision makers need to adapt, in real time, to new and
changing local, basin, national and international pressures
on their water resource bases and hydraulic infrastructures.
As the future becomes more difficult to predict, and
change is faster, there is decreased interest in long term
projections and plans. However, there is still a need for a
long term vision of impacts, especially in the water sector
where major projects, and main reforms, take more than
ten years to be implemented. It is more and more necessary
to have an estimate of long term impacts of each current
decision : “more a car is running fast, more you need to see
far away”.
11
2- Information system to support national
sustainable water policies
An efficient combination of the two complementary
approaches consists in increasing resources
towards designing and maintaining an integrated
water sector information system.
This system would be detailed enough, consistent,
coherent and robust. It could provide a continuous
monitoring of trends of water sector conditions,
and in addition it could permit a constant
adaptation of scenario modeling in order to
estimate, as necessary, long-term impact of current
policies.
12
13
2- Information system to support national
sustainable water policies
Evapotranspiration
Precipitation
Atmosphere
Territory of Reference
Inland Water Resource System
upstream
basins and
aquifers
outside
the territory
of reference
Surface water
(rivers, lakes, snow
ice and glaciers)
Soil water
Natural
transfers
Inflows
Outflows
infiltration
lt in
Sa
s
tru
Groundwater
infiltration
ion
Ou
tflo
w
downstream
basins and
aquifers
outside
the territory
of reference
s
Sea
Returns
Abstraction
Sea
Economy
14
2- Information system to support national
sustainable water policies
Atmosphere
Territory of Reference
Returns
Returns
Abstraction
Returns
Abstraction
In situ use of
precipitation
Abstraction
Inland Water Resource System
Evapotranspiration
Sea
Sea
Re
s
turn
Sewage and refuse
disposal...
n
io
ct
ra
st
R
et
ur
ns
Ab
Households
Other Industries
(incl. Agriculture)
RoW
Economy
Imports
Collection, purification
and distribution of water;
Transport via pipeline
RoW
Economy
Exports
Economy
15
2-b Objectives and benefits of a national
integrated water sector information system







Allow informed debates on policy choices available at
any given time;
improves ability to detect change and enables rapid
change of course corrections;
provides a representation of spatial distribution of
parameters by aggregation of local data;
improves foresight and anticipation with long term
scenario modeling;
provides a structured approach for analysis of system
status and service performances;
facilitates identification of good practices and of lesseffective ones;
provides a mechanism of reporting to decision makers
and of dialogue with Civil Society;
16
3-c Scope of a national integrated water
information system
17
2-d Implementation steps of an integrated
water information system
Step 1 : Elaboration of a methodological framework
A very high level political will is a prerequisite
- inclusive with many administrations and Ministries
- to built upon many existing information systems; data-bases;
accounts and GIS.
Step 2 : Elaboration of a detailed set of descriptors and indicators of
the water sector, taking into account the framework of integrated
water accounts
-Those descriptors should have to be consistent and have clear
definitions.
-UNSD glossary for water (work in progress).
Step 3 : Elaboration of operational procedures
-must take into account constraints of fragmented localization of
basic information, costs and available resources (human and
financial).
18
2-e Example of a modular architecture for an
integrated water sector information system
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Water sector governance;
Water Resources;
Access to assets and services;
Productive activities with water;
Spatial/variability analysis and anticipation.
Five modules have been structured to organize measurement
of sector descriptors in order to provide sector analysis
on
Governance, Resources, Equity, Efficiency
and
Sustainability.
19
20
21
3- Constraints to overcome and operational example
The lack of basic data and statistics, both qualitative and quantitative,
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
information on water resources, water infrastructures and water
services is either not available or often scattered in different
government agencies
observation networks have deteriorated in many parts of the world
over the past decade and, in most developing countries, databases
are inadequate
lack of financial and human resources, poor information sharing
affects the quality and authenticity of available data for policy
planning purposes.
water resources data is often collected in isolation of other
relevant socioeconomic and environmental variables at the basin
level,
data are collected and compiled using alternative definitions and
classifications across the various data producers, thus rendering
the existing datasets incomparable.
Finally, increased global reporting requirements but with no
visible national benefits caused by too many global initiatives put
a further stress on already stretches national capacities and
resources.
22
Surveys, focal points and data computerisation
c
23
GPS, digitalization, GIS and classification of basic
socio-economic data
24
Automatic spatial analysis of data base on water resources
(example : water quality)
25
Spatial interpolation
26
Aggregation and exchange of data
27
d
28
4 Conclusions and recommendations
 Similarly to the need of system analysis of the
water cycle at basin level in order to be able to
derive the appropriate information for water policy
makers, there is a need to assess the water
information cycle, between policy-monitoringmeasurements- information- reports-policy…

From national policy needs a set of structured
tables (accounts) and definitions (questionnaire)
plus qualitative assessments have to be decided at
country level. A general framework in 5 modules
has been proposed. Then a monitoring strategy and
an information management / reporting strategy
have to be designed.
29

4 Conclusions and recommendations
Integrated water accounts, when disaggregated and when
expanded, can constitute a consistent part of an integrated
water information system.

However, to monitor a national water sector, additional
qualitative descriptors need to be defined and measured to
characterize in particular, progress or decline in: water
governance, dissymmetry in information access, water
sector efficiency as well as services performance, and
sustainability of projects impact.

Effective actions for sustainable water management can
mainly be conducted at the local and main river-basin level
within a country. This calls for the collection of data at
those levels, with participation of several administrations
and contribution of generally fragmented databases.

The use of GIS and of scientific hydro-system modeling 30
and simulation of development scenari can be a necessity.
4 Conclusions and recommendations
 International organizations and donors should give
more priority to helping countries willing to
develop effectively, over time an integrated water
sector information system

Similarly, the international community of water
specialists, water statisticians, environmentalists,
and economists should cooperate under a common
UN framework (UNSD/UN-Water). They should
mobilize their talents and make converge their
experiences in building a set of common coherent
definitions of descriptors, tables, accounts,
indicators and qualitative assessments of the water
sector according to UNSC and UNCSD-13
recommendations.
31
4 Conclusions and recommendations

Those universal definitions and frameworks would
be used by countries for assessing their own progress
or decline towards a sustainable and equitable
development of their water resources and other water
assets.

It would also be an incentive for them to share their
experience with other countries.

Major initiatives, like those of EUWI, could play
with UN a key role in providing support to voluntary
countries willing to increase their national capacities
in monitoring their water sector in a comprehensive32
way.