Which Indicators for Whose Policies? Some Challenges of Global Water Monitoring

The statistical community will come under increasing pressure from policy makers to help address the technical challenges of generating and translating data into policy useful information to support the implementation of global development goals. In the water sector, a key issue that will immediately be confronted in many areas is the relative paucity of sector data which aggravates the challenge of developing tools that can adequately address the variability of resource inputs. Compounding this, much of the water that is used is not monitored, since it is taken from natural systems (rather than controlled technical systems), and its quantities and qualities often need to be estimated. If policy makers believe that water and its management are of growing importance and that their monitoring is therefore a priority, more intellectual, institutional, infrastructural and of course financial resources, will need to be devoted to the task