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Executive Summary
Summary
This report summarized global water quality challenges, noting that water pollution — including emerging contaminants such as microplastics and pharmaceuticals — cuts across nearly all Sustainable Development Goals and affects rich and poor countries alike. The executive summary identifies microplastics as an exemplar of the complex, multi-parameter nature of modern water quality monitoring problems.
Reveals that the complexity of water quality and the multitude of parameters requiring tracking contribute partly to why global water quality monitoring has proved so troublesome. Rich and poor countries alike endure high levels of water pollution, negatively affecting a range of sectors and cutting across nearly all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For example, while nitrogen remains essential for agricultural production, it also proves volatile and unstable, and oxidized nitrogen can prove lethal to infants as well as impair growth and later-life earnings. Pollutants of emerging concern, such as microplastics and pharmaceuticals, exemplify the complex nature of water quality issues, and make determining the total economic cost impossible. Policy makers can utilize either (1) a passive approach of inaction; (2) a proactive approach of prevention; or (3) a reactive approach that treats contaminants. The way forward requires a mix of these approaches, tailored to reflect the specificities of the water quality challenges at hand.