International Work Session on Water Statistics
With the renewed focus on water issues following the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, the Intersecretariat Working Group on Environment Statistics, together with FAO and the
World Water Assessment Programme, agreed that there was an urgent need
to review a number of issues related to water statistics, from the need
for data through to the obstacles faced by countries when completing the
questionnaires.
The Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency) in Austria offered to
host an International Work Session to bring together international water
data users and data collection bodies, and a cross-section of countries
from all regions, to look at these issues in depth. This Work Session
was held in Vienna on 20-22 June 2005. To allow a real discussion of the
issues, country participation was restricted to countries that are active
in the area of water data collection: see
participants list.
The Work Session was organised in nine sessions (see agenda),
each focusing on a different aspect of water statistics covering the need
for water statistics, water statistics collected by international organizations,
water accounting, and information on water resources, supply and use,
waste water generation and treatment, water quality and emissions of pollutants
to water, and water pricing and environmental expenditure on water. The
topics were discussed on the basis of 35 working
papers prepared and presented by participants from countries and international
organisations. The report of
the Work Session is now available.
|