Wastewater - Turning Problem to Solution

Stronger data and information

There are initiatives that continue to address the challenges of data and information to track SDG 6. The Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 was launched in 2015 by UN-Water at the beginning of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and funded by the Governments of Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The initiative has four phases which run through to 2030 and aims to accelerate the achievement of SDG 6 by increasing the availability of high-quality data

What cannot be measured cannot be managed. Improving and expanding monitoring efforts to strengthen data is needed to inform progress, learning and ensure accountability. There is a need to improve consensus on wastewater terminology and address issues of data availability, accessibility, quality and consistency to advance our understanding of wastewater dynamics, the impact of our water-use activities in terms of water availability and quality, and its reuse.

Table 3.6: Possible actions to deliver stronger data and information.

Building blocks

Opportunities to develop the building block

• Strengthen the indicators required to track the different aspects of wastewater management resource recovery and reuse including the monitoring and data required to assess the indicators.

• Draw on scientific and traditional knowledge systems as well as citizen science. • Work with the custodians of relevant SDG indicators to fill data gaps. Support ongoing initiatives including IMI SDG 6 to: • Strengthen the reporting of data related to wastewater production, collection, treatment and reuse by sector. • Progress the ongoing discussions to develop gender disaggregated data for on wastewater production and reuse to support measuring progress on SDG indicator 6.3.1. • Start collecting wastewater data at the basin level. • Use innovative monitoring approaches to fill wastewater data gaps. Promising technological advances and innovative monitoring techniques include new sensors, computerized telemetry devices and innovative data analysis tools (Zandaryaa and Brdjanovic 2017). the development of data and information that can inform policy and decision makers at relevant governance levels, for example Open Wash Data, an international community funded by ETH Zurich that applies open practices to data in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector to build open science competencies and community. • Develop or strengthen peer learning, massive open online courses and training courses to support

• Continue to strengthen metrics for SDG 6.3.

• Improve wastewater monitoring.

• Build capacity for monitoring, data management and reporting on wastewater and reuse issues at the global, regional, national and subnational levels.

92