Water Guidelines: Practical Help for Policymakers
Freshwater biodiversity is in serious decline in many parts of the world
When you pick up a bottle of water in a supermarket, you can reasonably expect it to be safe to drink because you know that it has been manufactured to certain approved standards. Likewise, if you go swimming in a municipal pool you assume that the water is safe to swim in and chlorinated in line with health and safety guidelines.
Until recently, however, policymakers have not had clear guidelines on how to manage and maintain freshwater systems in the face of human population growth, accelerating economic activity, land use changes and climate change, which have all increased pressure on the quality and quantity of water resources, and threaten freshwater systems as well as ecosystems in general.
- See more at: http://unep.org/stories/Ecosystems/Water-Guidelines.asp#sthash.9x8gFXE5.dpuf
