The water leaders survey proposed in this concept note is intended to assist all relevant stakeholders (UN member states, inter-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and other non-state actors) to accelerate progress in achieving water objectives by informing discussions at the United Nations 2023 Water Conference.

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This report, published by IWRA, “collects and examines examples of existing recommendations for influent water quality, as applied to various human and ecosystem uses. It provides robust reference and analysis of existing water quality guidelines. Building on these case studies, the report explores new perspectives, and raises pertinent questions for future work on the topic, including what an online compendium of such guidelines might look like.

Its primary objective is to lay the groundwork for an online compendium to improve access to examples of water quality guidelines and facilitate a better understanding of how water quality demand and supply can contribute to appropriate and economical multi-sectoral water resource management.

The contents and outputs of the report are oriented around three overlapping domains: water use, geographical scale, and multi-disciplinary perspectives. Due to the nature of water resources, there are few water quality guidelines that address the full range of uses. This report is no exception, and so focuses on five main categories of water use: domestic, agriculture, industry, energy, and ecosystems. After examining international, regional and national guidelines from these water uses, the report presents key findings and recommendations based on these guidelines, as well as a proposed database structure to encourage future work in the topic.” (www.iwra.org)