AQUASTAT: New section on wastewater

New wastewater section added to the global information system. More that 120 data sources have been reviewed and thousands of national data collected and checked against systematic validation criteria, offering information on more than 100 countries. 

This new addition paves the way to have the first global and comprehensive information system on the wastewater cycle, in collaboration with other partners such as the International Water Management Institute.

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Definition of terms and variables

Definitions of wastewater-related terms and variables are included in the AQUASTAT glossary and can be consulted by clicking on the names below. The figures between square brackets refer to the figures between square brackets in the figure above.

• Wastewater
• Produced municipal wastewater [1]
• Collected municipal wastewater [2]
• Municipal wastewater treatment facility
• Treated municipal wastewater [3]
• Not treated municipal wastewater [4]
• Treated municipal wastewater discharged (secondary water) [5]
• Not treated municipal wastewater discharged (secondary water) [6]
• Direct use of treated municipal wastewater [7]
• Direct use of treated municipal wastewater for irrigation [8]
• Direct use of not treated municipal wastewater for irrigation [9]
• Area equipped for full control irrigation by direct use of treated wastewater [10]
• Area equipped for full control irrigation by direct use of not treated wastewater [11]

Note: when clicking on "View data for this variable in the AQUASTAT Database" in the description of the variable in the glossary, an AQUASTAT database results page will appear containing all data available for this variable.

Data sources, selection and validation

Data collection takes place through review of country briefs and national reports, databases, technical reports, peer-reviewed publications, information provided by national experts, presentations from national authorities in seminars, Internet search, etc.

Since data come from many different sources, inconsistencies may occur over the course of time. Therefore, each time new data become available a detailed review and validation of all data, both new ones obtained and the ones already available in the database, is essential.

Data is validated in relation to a time span from 1958 to 2012, based on the assumption that mainly the annual volume of wastewater produced, but probably also the annual volume collected, treated, discharged or directly used should - unless justified, such as for example due to contraction in the municipal population growth - show incremental increase as water use would rise over time.

Data is also validated in relation to various stages of the wastewater cycle, i.e. wastewater production (assumed to be the highest volume), wastewater collection, treatment and direct use (lowest volume of water).

For more information on the rationale, method, sources and setup of the this global wastewater database, see the methodological paper.

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