Greetings from the World Water Quality Alliance Coordination Team here in Nairobi, Kenya. We hope that you and your close ones have remained in good health this year despite ongoing challenges of the pandemic. It is now the time of the year again where we will be holding our 3^rd annual global meeting for the World Water Quality Alliance in 2022. Due to the ongoing restrictions caused by the Omicron variant, as the global health situation keeps evolving and as a virtual format allows for the widest possible participation from around the world, we are once again planning to hold the next Annual Global Meeting of the WWQA fully virtually, as was done earlier in 2021 for the 2^nd annual Global Meeting.

The WWQA has continued to make great strides with regards to overall progress as well as in the respective workstreams despite the disruption caused by the ongoing global health crisis and for that we would like to applaud and thank all our principal investigators and partners for their continued efforts.

Join us at the 3rd Annual Global Meeting of the WWQA, co-hosted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), scheduled to take place over 2 half-days, set over slightly different timing to try and allow for as much flexibility for participants around the world to join in. The theme of this meeting is ‘Data to Knowledge, Knowledge to Action’ and the objectives are:

1. WWQA Coordination Team Update
2. Present ongoing work and interfaces and products contributing towards the World Water Quality Assessment that will be shared on the UNEP World Environment Situation Room (WESR) as the main portal to update UNEP Member States towards the World Water Quality Assessment and WWQA workstreams contributing to this
3. Understand the role of in-situ data on water quality available from GEMS Water. Identify requirements for in-situ data within the WWQA community to better support stakeholder needs and demands in this area.
4. Identify emerging topics of environmental and socio-economic concern for water quality and inclusion into the Assessment
5. Strategic planning and thematic focus.

For meeting connection details please contact wwqa-coordination@un.org. Please find the agenda attached below:

We look forward to your participation!

Join the WWQA at the upcoming Cassandra Conference 2021 organized by Eurecat.  

Join the conference on 15^th,  16^th and 17^th  November 2021. 

To register please click here: https://cassandraconference.org/registration/

Attached you will find the conference programme.

For more information please see: Conference Flier and / or visit the website: https://cassandraconference.org/

We look forward to your participation!

First webinar of the Introductory series to the International Conference: Groundwater, key to the Sustainable Development Goals.

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When: Thursday, May 27, 2021

Time: 2:30pm to 5pm (GMT+2)

Register here:

https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rebnobiiQgSCKR4ZS_FE9g

Venue: Zoom Webinar Platform

27 - 28 January 2021, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM (CET)

 Dear Members of the World Water Quality Alliance,

First and foremost, we hope that you are all in good health during these difficult times. Over the past year, the WWQA working groups and their respective workstreams have made significant progress despite the disruption caused by the current global health crisis and for that we would like to commend all our principal investigators and partners for their continued efforts.

The WWQA is a unique Community of Practice, representing an enormous range of outstanding expertise regarding water quality. It looks into interlinkages and feedback between water and health, environment and societies to name a few, whilst also representing a bridge between data, knowledge and action, by aiming to inform science, policy, business, society interfaces. As an Alliance we therefore continue to work collectively to explore the related knowledge and innovation workstreams underway that can assist global communities to find solutions to challenges in the short, medium, and long-term.

Cognisant of the fact that COVID-19 slowed us down in 2020 and which resulted in not having an annual global meeting of the Alliance in 2020, the WWQA Coordination Unit and the Co-chairs of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Committees would like to invite all members of the WWQA to the 2^nd Annual Global Meeting on the 27^th and 28^th January 2021 (to take place over 2 half days). We are grateful to also confirm that irrespective of all global disruptions the African Ministers Council for Water, AMCOW, remains on board as our co-convener. This is very important since in the absence of an African Water Week at the end of 2020 and the same applying to a postponed World Water Forum to 2022, we are convinced that one geographical and thematic focus on Africa shall remain our top header. Due to current restrictions on international travel the meeting will be taking place virtually.

Objectives:

1. To invite and present updates and outlooks to our distinguished Community on the current state of the various WWQA workstreams as well as discussions on new emerging topics; this will include several focal areas summarized here and to be fleshed out in a detailed programme to follow:

• the World Water Quality Assessment with its contributing working groups on satellite observations, modelling and in-situ data;
• the workstreams addressing water quality in groundwater (Friends of Groundwater)
• several perspectives to be provided on water quality and health, but also water reuse, including antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and an update on the exploration of a Sentinel System for SARS-CoV-2 and beyond stemming from the Umbrella Study conducted by the European Union (EU)
• ecosystem dimensions of water quality and how to intercompare the quality of different ecological systems

• we will focus on and establish a consortium around the urgently needed upscaling of water quality and monitoring related capacity development, - here GEMS/Water Capacity Development Centre (CDC) will be in a lead together with UNEP
• we will take a look into the topic of data, namely in-situ data, and where to go with monitoring in future – here GEMS/Water will be in a leading role
• further, we will focus on the social engagement workstream; here focus in the first place is on the municipal scale to foster societal transformation advocating an “all of society” approach
• we also expect new initiatives to come our way with regards to involving the private sector and the youth

2. Dedicated focus on Africa

Water has for decades been a central focus on the African continent, water as amenity, as part of the life support system with both quantity and quality being key to human wellbeing, and environmental health. Environmental water quality, however, has always been an afterthought of drinking water and sanitation. A possible key to unlocking this situation is to highlight the interlinkages of these dimensions where one cannot go without the other. Africa is a prime example for the relevance of a multidimensional nexus focus. We aim to address:

• The special initiative on Monitoring and Evaluation (Water and Sanitation Management Organisation - WASMO),
• The evolving programme on water quality (AMCOW) where we aim to explore mutual working links to the WWQA
• Specific cases by African Colleagues will be possible on all aspects mentioned under a)
• The WWQA UseCases on the Volta, Victoria and Cape Town Aquifer Systems – experiences, opportunities, challenges and potential upscaling

We invite UN-Water to provide us with insight and a statement on the relevance and mutual agendas between the Alliance and the recently launched UN-Water Framework for SDG 6 Acceleration in which heads of all UN agencies were involved^[1].

We will arrange for subsequent Expert Group virtual meetings on specific cases where there is need for follow up in smaller groups on certain topics. It is further suggested that two special sessions can be arranged prior to and after the conference for the Strategic Advisory Committee (SAC) and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to consider proposals received for new workstreams and/or seed funding applications.

While our immediate concern lies with the health and well-being of the members of the Alliance, we also recognise that the issues that drive WWQA’s work through its various workstreams will continue to be our priority focus, more central in the post-COVID 19 reconstruction efforts. We hope this virtual Annual Global Meeting will support the continued establishment of a community of like-minded innovators and raise entrepreneurship in a scientific and solution-oriented sense to address what we observe and may anticipate for the future.

We look forward to your participation!

 With kind regards,

The WWQA Coordination Unit

^{[1] https://www.unwater.org/un-water-launch-the-sdg-6-global-acceleration-framework/}

Meeting Agenda:

The World Water Quality Alliance Coordination Team in UNEP and the Strategic Advisory Committee (SAC) of the World Water Quality Alliance invite WWQA partners to submit applications for the following:

1. Proposal for New or Renewal of WWQA Workstreams

This first call¹ is applicable to workstreams already existing and seeking renewal in the running WWQA Work Plan, as well as new initiatives (see below). New workstream² proposals shall be reviewed by the Strategic Advisory Committee (SAC) for approval. Technical and scientific review and guidance shall be provided by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

2. Applications for Seed Funding where applicable

This is applicable to those workstream proposals submitted under (1) which also apply for seed funding through UNEP. Applications for seed funding shall be reviewed and prioritized by the SAC. Technical and scientific review and guidance shall be provided by the TAC. Seed funding is generally meant to provide initial, inception support for innovative workstreams addressing priority water quality issues and those which will feature co-benefits from collaboration between WWQA and external partners.

While proposals shall generally contribute to support the agreed Work Plan of the Alliance³, new proposals bringing new thematic focus to the Alliance shall be open for review and consideration for inclusion by the SAC. Proponents may also seek additional guidance and/or receive scientific, technical and network advice by the TAC.

The templates for application can be accessed through the following links:

01 - Proposal template for WWQA Workstreams                                         

01 - Proposal template WWQA WorkStreams.docx                                                                                                       

02 - WWQA Seed funding application template       

Please submit your workstream proposals and Seed Funding Applications no later than15 January 2021 to wanjiku.njuguna@un.org.

*1 This is the first WWQA call for workstream proposals. There will be openings for future calls regularly based on demand and priorities; modalities for frequency of such calls and/or intersessional submission have yet to be decided.

*2 In this first call, workstream proposals asked for are applying both, to existing and new workstreams. The WWQA Coordination Team acknowledges that the workstreams agreed upon in Ispra Sep. 2019 are running and therefore are reflected in the current WWQA Work Plan. However, the rational for the WWQA Coordination Team and SAC call also comprising those existing projects (i.e., filling out the workstream proposal template (Doc. 01)) is meant to provide for standardized information allowing the WWQA Coordination Team to display standardized information in outreach media, such as websites etc. and enabling full visibility. Also new proposals will be open for review. (see also footnote 1)

*3 First first year Work Plan was agreed at the launching conference held in Sep 2019 in Ispra, at the JRC. The next one shall be tabled and reviewed by the SAC and TAC during the next global meeting scheduled for 27-28 January 2021.

2^nd TOWN HALL MEETING / UN-WWQA PART 2 MEETING

Wednesday 22^nd of July 2020

10.30 – 12.00 EU Umbrella Study | 12:30 – 14.00 UN World Water Quality Alliance (CEST Time Zone)

 Wastewater has emerged as a reliable indicator of the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the population, while being itself not a source of infection. The ability to detect RNA fragments of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is increasingly and independently being reported from research groups in nearly all EU Member States and beyond. Thus Australia, Canada, Turkey and other countries have successfully deployed sewers sentinels to compliment ongoing health surveillance programs

The reasons are obvious. This is a first opportunity to reliably surveil the presence of the virus in the population in a better and more harmonized way without direct testing of individual persons. Of particular note are studies which have detected the virus in wastewater before clinical cases are reported, indicating that the approach offers potential to form part of an early warning community public health surveillance system. This is a significant leap forward to a “life with the virus” ensuring preparedness and readiness in fighting its re-emergence.

The EU Umbrella Study

The European Commission has created a pan-European Umbrella Study to better understand the limitations and challenges of this approach. This includes the development of a roadmap for a systemic rollout of complementing ongoing national and regional surveillances in a unique approach. Upon suggestion from the Dutch Water Research Institute (KWR) and the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) and supported by EurEau and Water Europe, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the Directorate-General Environment with involvement of the Directorate-General Health and Food Safety set up a spontaneous research alliance and organised a study engaging directly with some 90 waste water treatment plants in Europe. The umbrella currently spreads out to 17 countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden), which decided to create an overlap with the EU study. Another 9 countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia) will join the second round of the Umbrella Study, scheduled for August 2020. While first results indicate the viability of the approach, they are currently being critically reviewed to develop a consensus on the use of generated datasets. In an inclusive and open approach critical topics and limitations are reviewed jointly with private and public entities which joined the initiative: CEDEX- Centro de Estudios y Experimentación de Obras Públicas (CEDEX), Eurecat – Technology Centre of Catalonia (Spain), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, NIREAS – The International Water Research Center, NORMAN Network, SUEZ, University of Thessaly and National Technical University of Athens (Greece) and the University of Exeter (UK)  to name, but a few.

Defining the “Use Case”

EU Umbrella Study @ UN World Water Quality Alliance

UN World Water Quality Alliance: Sharing findings to assist hotspot areas, linking the environmental dimension

World Water Quality Alliance a global Community of Practice across all societal actors convened by UNEP as well as the World Health Organization WHO have offered their convening power to assist, in the forthcoming weeks and months, the knowledge transfer to the international community with a special aim to provide assistance to the current hotspot areas. This includes for example to expand the continuous information update to regions and partners.

Following a successful first event, this second Virtual Town Hall Event aims at informing the Community of Practice as well as to organize an initial step to explore global rollout options along a new understanding between health and environment. Corner stone in here is to collectively define the criteria for “use cases” in different regions and settings. The event is organized into two session, in order to allow an as large as possible community to join:

Part I (CEST Time Zone)

10.30 – 12.00 EU Umbrella Study (Chaired Session by EU/WHO Regional Office)

• An update on the findings for the EU Umbrella Study (10 Min)
• Insights into European National and Regional exercises (5 min each, max 8 cases)
• Insight into Methodologies and harmonisation (10 min)
• Uptake and rollouts in the Mediterranean and Europe (10 min plus discussion 20 min)

Part II (CEST Time Zone)

12:30 – 14.00 UN World Water Quality Alliance (Chaired session by UNEP/WHO/WWQA)

• Use Cases Australia/New Zealand, Canada, US, Japan (tbc)
• Requirements for African use cases (tbc)
• Requirements for Asian use cases (tbc)
• Requirements for Latin American use cases (tbc)
• The view of the World Bank (tbc)
• The view of Stakeholders e.g. World Water Quality Assessment, Regional Economic Commissions (tbc)
• Next actions (10 min)

To join us for the meeting please CLICK HERE.

For more information on this, please contact the Joint Research Centre at JRC-WATERLAB@ec.europa.eu or UNEP at wanjiku.njuguna@un.org .

The Year The 21st Century Began: Covid-19 and Water Quality

World Water Quality Alliance – COVID-19 WEBINAR

Wednesday 27th of May 2020, 14.00 CET

Having received an important amount of data as a result of the WWQA call entitled SARS–CoV-2 and COVID-19 Pandemic – A call to share what we can innovate and how we can respond and assist it was decided to organise a peer-group discussion. The goal was to explore how collaboration between interested parties could result in initiating of science, technology, innovation and enhancing of ongoing specific project work addressing the present pandemic and emerging recovery and prevention challenges facing society.

Among the  latest developments introduced to the attendees here were a Sentinel system for analysing pre-treated wastewater, the guarantees required in order to ensure an efficient supply of chemicals for the supply and sanitation of water, the issue of extreme WASH and the consequences of COVID-19 regarding agricultural irrigation, bathing water and water reuse. .

The intention was to describe the situation and offer examples of actions from Europe, Brazil and India whilst stimulating the participants to tender new ideas for collective efforts that may benefit from the involvement of the UN Environment Programme and the World Water Quality Alliance at large. Furthermore, the event was designed to act a catalyst for the creation of collective or sub-collective proposals regarding possible post-COVID-19 scenarios.

The webinar was the first of two virtual highly participatory events. This first one was to set the stage based on four presentations and in-depth discussions moderated by the chair of the Strategic Advisory Committee of the WWQA, Bernd Gawlik, JRC. As a second step participants are now encouraged to prepare, in the ensuing weeks, short videos of a maximum of five minutes in length, describing projects, opinions, experiences and suggesting ideas for future implementation which would be screened during the second webinar. The second webinar is planned for first half July 2020.

Following their inspirational presentations the four speakers, Richard Damania (World Bank), Andrea Rubini (WATER EUROPE), Eduardo Mario Mendiondo (the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil) and Mukunda Upadhyay (Oxfam India), were invited to describe what had surprised them most during the present crisis, what they believed were the most important issues in relation to water quality at this time and what could be the most effective role of the WWQA at present to assist in addressing the challenges:

Some stark realities were presented to the audience. There is much uncertainty with regards to both the causes, the dissemination and the possible sanitary responses to the situation. There is, at present, no vaccine, no cure and testing has proven to be inadequate under many circumstances. In the words of Richard Damania, ‘Lockdown has been the blunt reaction of an ill-prepared society for such an event’. The economic effects, and this does not take into account the possibility of a second or more subsequent waves during the late summer of early autumn of 2020, are the most dramatic since the end of World War II, with a drop of 5% in the GDP of developing countries and 7% or higher in more advanced economies. Some of the short-term effects such as a rise in unemployment and higher poverty rates that may result as well as risk aversion, together with continued and even increased investment in capital intensive production will face society with two options. Either, it ignores the potentially devasting consequences of the situation and persists in a vain attempt to maintain the status quo or the global community grasps may alternatively be perceived as an opportunity in order to improve a general ecological equilibrium, generating sustainable employment, resilient food systems and production and consumption patterns allowing supply chains relying on maintained and even growing natural capital. The latter requires adapting both traditional policy paradigms and educating the general public. This necessary approach to a Green and Digital economy was also highlighted by both, Andrea Rubini and Eduardo Mario Mendiondo, whilst Mukunda Upadhyay reinforced the general opinion by demonstrating, when discussing the advantages of Citizen Science, that ‘Hope is impossible without Cooperation’.

Indeed, the principal conclusion of this first WWQA – COVID-19 WEBINAR was that all the sectors representative of the “Quintuple Helix” (Public sector, Private sector, Research and academia, citizens and cultural interest groups) must unite in order to face the present and future crises of this nature. The questions and suggestions of the 76 participants attending the virtual event tended to support this view. Bernd Gawlik when summarising, reiterated that the exchange of knowledge is a vital element of a process which appeals to the deconstruction of hitherto rigid silo-based socio-economic and scientific practices.

To view the PDF version please click here: WWQA COVID-19 WEBINAR - Part 1

The speakers' presentations' can be accessed via the following links:

Eduardo Mario Mendiondo (the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil):

Mukunda Upadhyay (Oxfam India):

World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA) Activity Mapping and Webinar

Dear Members of the World Water Quality Alliance,

The World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA), having been impacted by the current global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, like many other communities, is inclined to devise ways of contributing to solutions and responses. It is obvious that water plays a central role in human health. To name but a few examples, this can be as a trajectory of root causes as much as a preventive and even curing amenity but also as a post-pandemic source of vital monitoring data permitting the screening of the effectiveness of the societal response.

The WWQA is unique as a Community of Practice representing an enormous range of solid expertise regarding water quality, inter-linkages and feedback between water, environment and health aspects whilst also representing a bridge between data to action. We, as an Alliance shall therefore work collectively and together with you to explore the related knowledge and innovation work streams underway that is capable of assisting global communities to find responses in the short, medium and long-term. 

We would like to call upon you, as members of the Alliance, to share with us your inputs in the field of innovation science, observation and monitoring, etc. – those dimensions you consider relevant – concerning inter-linkages between water quality and health or related issues. Scientific and public media tell us about progress being pursued in areas such as detection of viral RNA in wastewater – which if it reaches scientifically rigorous standards and allows quantifiable relation to population in time and space may allow screening in terms of preparedness to pathogen hazards as much as pandemic response efficiency. This is just one example and many more will certainly exist.

Furthermore, the Alliance is considering an immediate data drive including (where possible in-situ information) but predominantly an Earth Observation (EO) approach to be applied to tracing water quality signals that can be observed in the environment and are attributable to an unprecedented economic lock-down. Not only shall we process resulting information to better inform the post-pandemic recovery action socially, economically and in normative terms but also employ the strong environmental signals as a baseline. Future SMART monitoring and reviewing of environmental state and trends will largely rely on a fusion of in-situ, remote sensing, modelling as well as artificial intelligence data. The current situation may allow for the first of a kind – low emission state - calibration of current and future models. Other similar innovative scientific research and data collection may co-benefit. As we work together to develop and share EO data, information and knowledge for global challenges (see call by GEO Secretariat), the Alliance encourages such initiatives and aims to combine them more systematically. This effort is undertaken within the context of the World Water Quality Alliance mechanism, in particular, experts active in these diverse areas.

The WWQA invites members of the Alliance to inform the Co-ordination Unit of any relevant examples of work underway in your realm that you would like to share and expose to peer discussion including collective exploration of where we can collaborate to upscale and lift off specific project work if applicable and required to assist society. This may, for example, include the use of EO to trace the water quality signal of the economic lockdown, it may encompass innovation science on water quality including pathogen monitoring and its possible use in prevention and post-recovery monitoring. In short, interlinkages between water quality and health in support of COVID-19 and other health-related monitoring, response or recovery.

Upon review and following members approval, the WWQA shall make your science, innovation and suggestions for solutions, interventions and responses visible on the WWQA website and other communication channels. We will examine requirements from the global community, as much as from our members, where there are pathways deserving larger project frames and where we can engage collectively for up-scaling, researching and demonstrating solutions and improving future assessments. We are currently working with the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and EureCat in planning for an extraordinary Webinar Conference on the subject for which you will receive an invitation shortly. The idea is that you will have a chance to pitch your input to a broad community of peers and users.

While our immediate concern lies with the health and well-being of the members of the Alliance, we also recognise that the issues that drive WWQA’s work through its various workflows will continue to be our priority focus after the current pandemic has ended. We hope this Call will support the establishment of a community of like-minded innovators and raise entrepreneurship in a scientific and solution-oriented sense to address what we observe and may anticipate for the future.

Responses to this call should be sent to kaisa.uusimaa@un.org, wanjiku.njuguna@un.org and anham.salyani@un.org. Please provide a brief description of the activity, including institutional participants, preferably by 24 April 2020 in order for us to be able to prepare for the planned Webinar. We welcome your input beyond this deadline as well.

 View PDF document here:

With kind regards,

The WWQA Co-ordination Unit

The United Nations Environment Programme, which coordinates the Alliance, in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) hosted the Second Global Workshop of the World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA) in Ispra, Italy. The 2019 Global Workshop of the World Water Quality Alliance took place from September 16 to September 18. In what can be defined the launch of a new chapter in the Global Water Quality Community, 95 registered attendees from 30 countries and 62 organizations from supra-national to local level representing the public, private and research sectors, convened to organize the work plan of this highly-interdisciplinary and trans-sectorial community of practice. 

The objectives of the workshop were:

• Take stock and discuss the way forward of ongoing Alliance activities such as the Africa Use Cases, the progress regarding the global baseline assessment and the work on plastics in freshwater
• Agree on a roadmap regarding the official formalization of the Alliance and its governance by agreeing on rules for the election of Strategic and Technical Advisory Committees, gathering input from partners to finalize a declaration for Members of the World Water Quality Alliance and discussing the signing process for such a declaration
• Draft a work plan for the Alliance for 2019 – 2020 with concrete commitments for contributions from partners within its various thematic focus areas (e.g. groundwater quality, health and cities, water quality and ecosystems etc.)
• Deepen the exchange between Alliance partners by updating each other on ongoing workflows within their respective organizations and identifying potential topics and modes of cooperation
• Discuss ways of improving outreach and mainstreaming ambient water quality into policy and decision making

The meeting concluded that the Alliance would provide governments and other stakeholders with relevant evidence-based assessment, scenarios, solutions and services on water quality issues. Globally, an estimated 80% of wastewater is released directly into water bodies without treatment.

"I am so pleased that UNEP has been able to catalyze the creation of the World Water Quality Alliance which brings diverse disciplines together to translate science on water quality into action. I cannot highlight enough the importance of the task at hand: because improving water quality is central to environmental sustainability and to ensuring healthy ecosystems, healthy people and a healthy planet," said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme.

The Alliance will provide a baseline assessment of global water quality and will build on this with a continuous overview of global water quality and its drivers. It will also develop evidence-based products to inform improved global, regional and local water management. Facilitating a bottom-up approach to co-designing and developing products for mid- to long-term use and operationalization, its goal is to move data to knowledge to action with partners on the ground, jointly aiming at tackling the Global Water Crisis.