Water quality management: a globally neglected issue

W. H. Auden, the English poet, wrote: ‘Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.’ Auden died in 1973. A modern-day Auden might have modified this statement to ‘Thousands have lived without love, not one without good quality of water.’ Signs of deteriorating water quality can be seen all over the world, in both developed and developing countries. The types, magnitudes and extents of water quality problems differ from one country to another, and even from one part of a country to another. Political and social will, essential to solve them, also differs from one part of a country to another. The problems are globally ubiquitous. They are further exacerbated by the fact that reliable and representative water quality data are not available in vast majority of countries of the world. What is indisputable is that in most countries, the current trend has been one of steady deterioration in quality of water bodies, and this has been visible for several decades. Consider the following facts: