Metadata 06 04 02
Metadata 06 04 02
Metadata 06 04 02
Definition:
The level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources is the
ratio between total freshwater withdrawn by all major sectors and total renewable freshwater resources,
after taking into account environmental flow requirements. Main sectors, as defined by ISIC standards,
include agriculture; forestry and fishing; manufacturing; electricity industry; and services. This indicator is
also known as water withdrawal intensity.
Concepts:
This indicator provides an estimate of pressure by all sectors on the country’s renewable freshwater
resources. A low level of water stress indicates a situation where the combined withdrawal by all sectors
is marginal in relation to the resources, and has therefore little potential impact on the sustainability of
the resources or on the potential competition between users. A high level of water stress indicates a
situation where the combined withdrawal by all sectors represents a substantial share of the total
renewable freshwater resources, with potentially larger impacts on the sustainability of the resources
and potential situations of conflicts and competition between users.
Total renewable freshwater resources (TRWR) are expressed as the sum of internal and external
renewable water resources. The terms “water resources” and “water withdrawal” are understood here
as freshwater resources and freshwater withdrawal.
Internal renewable water resources are defined as the long-term average annual flow of rivers and
recharge of groundwater for a given country generated from endogenous precipitation.
External renewable water resources refer to the flows of water entering the country, taking into
consideration the quantity of flows reserved to upstream and downstream countries through agreements
or treaties.
Total freshwater withdrawal (TFWW) is the volume of freshwater extracted from its source (rivers, lakes,
aquifers) for agriculture, industries and services1. It is estimated at the country level for the following
three main sectors: agriculture, services (including domestic water withdrawal) and industries (including
cooling of thermoelectric plants). Freshwater withdrawal includes fossil groundwater. It does not include
non-conventional water, i.e. direct use of treated wastewater, direct use of agricultural drainage water
and desalinated water.
Environmental flow requirements (EFR) are defined as the quantity and timing of freshwater flows and
levels necessary to sustain aquatic ecosystems, which, in turn, support human cultures, economies,
sustainable livelihoods, and wellbeing. Water quality and also the resulting ecosystem services are
excluded from this formulation which is confined to water volumes. This does not imply that quality and
the support to societies which are dependent on environmental flows are not important and should not
be taken care of.2 Methods of computation of EFR are extremely variable and range from global
estimates to comprehensive assessments for river reaches. For the purpose of the SDG indicator, water
volumes can be expressed in the same units as the TFWW, and then as percentages of the available water
resources.
Agriculture, Ministry of Water, Ministry of Environment and other line Ministries. In many cases, data
collection at country level is coordinated by the National Statistics office (NSO).
The indicator shows to what extent water resources are already used, and signals the importance of
effective supply and demand management policies. It indicates the likelihood of increasing competition
and conflict between different water uses and users in a situation of increasing water scarcity. Increased
water stress, shown by an increase in the value of the indicator, has potentially negative effects on the
sustainability of the natural resources and on economic development. On the other hand, low values of
the indicator indicate that water does not represent a particular challenge for economic development
and sustainability.
However, extremely low values may indicate the inability of a country to use properly its water resources
for the benefit of the population. In such cases, a moderate and controlled increase in the value of the
indicator can be a sign of positive development.
This indicator provides an estimate of pressure by all sectors on the country’s renewable freshwater
resources. A low level of water stress indicates a situation where the combined withdrawal by all sectors
is marginal in relation to the resources, and has therefore little potential impact on the sustainability of
the resources or on the potential competition between users. A high level of water stress indicates a
situation where the combined withdrawal by all sectors represents a substantial share of the total
renewable freshwater resources, with potentially larger impacts on the sustainability of the resources
and potential situations of conflicts and competition between users.
The indicator is computed based on three components:
Total renewable freshwater resources (TRWR)
Total freshwater withdrawal (TFWW)
Environmental flow requirements (EFR)
Supplementary indicators that capture the multiple dimensions of water management would combine
data on water demand management, behavioural changes with regard to water use and the availability of
appropriate infrastructure, and measure progress in increasing the efficiency and sustainability of water
use, in particular in relation to population and economic growth. They would also recognize the different
climatic environments that affect water use in countries, especially in agriculture, which is the main user
of water. Sustainability assessment is also linked to the critical thresholds fixed for this indicator.
Although there is no universal consensus on such thresholds, a proposal is presented below.
Trends in freshwater withdrawal show relatively slow patterns of change. Usually, three-five years are a
minimum frequency to be able to detect significant changes, as it is unlikely that the indicator would
show meaningful variations from one year to the other.
Estimation of water withdrawal by sector may represent a limitation to the computation of the indicator.
Few countries publish water withdrawal data on a regular basis by sector.
There is no universally agreed method for the computation of incoming freshwater flows originating
outside of a country's borders. Nor is there any standard method to account for return flows, the part of
the water withdrawn from its source and which flows back to the river system after use. In countries
where return flow represents a substantial part of water withdrawal, the indicator tends to
underestimate available water and therefore overestimate the level of water stress.
Other limitations that affect the interpretation of the water stress indicator include:
• difficulty to obtain accurate, complete and up-to-date data;
• potentially large variation of sub-national data;
• lack of account of historical (e.g., due to climate change and population growth) and seasonal
variations in water resources;
• lack of consideration to the distribution among water uses;
• lack of consideration of water quality and its suitability for use; and
• the indicator can be higher than 100 percent when water withdrawal non-renewable freshwater
(fossil groundwater), when annual groundwater withdrawal is higher than annual replenishment
(over-abstraction) or when freshwater withdrawal includes part or all the water set aside for
environmental flow requirements.
Some of these issues can be solved through disaggregation of the indicator at the level of hydrological
units and by distinguishing between different use sectors. However, due to the complexity of water
flows, both within a country and between countries, care should be taken not to double-count.
𝑇𝐹𝑊𝑊
𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 (%) = × 100
(𝑇𝑅𝑊𝑅 − 𝐸𝐹𝑅)
Following the experience of the initial five years of application of the indicator, and consistent with the
approach taken during the MDG program, the threshold of 25% has been identified as the upper limit for
a full and unconditional safety of water stress as assessed by the indicator 6.4.2.
That means on one hand, that values below 25% can be considered safe in any instance (no stress); on
the other, that values above 25% should be regarded as potentially and increasingly problematic, and
should be qualified and/or reduced.
Above 25% of water stress, four classes have been identified to signal different levels of stress severity:
• NO STRESS <25%
• LOW 25% - 50%
• MEDIUM 50% - 75%
• HIGH 75-100%
• CRITICAL >100%
− After this verification, exchanges between the National Correspondents and FAO take place to
correct and confirm the collected data.
− The last validation step is an automated validation routine included in the Statistical Working
System (SWS), which uses almost 200 validation rules.
Additionally, the Statistical Working System (SWS) has the correspondence among different international
codes (FAOSTAT, UNSDM49, ISO2, ISO3) for geographic areas and is used to convert area codes in the
external sources to UNSDM49 codes which is the standard used in the SWS.
4.f. Treatment of missing values (i) at country level and (ii) at regional level
(IMPUTATION)
• At country level
Three types of imputation are made at country level to fill in missing years in the timeseries:
• Linear imputation: between two available data-points.
• Carry forward: after the last available data-points and up to 10 years.
• Vertical imputation: in case of available total freshwater withdrawal but missing
disaggregation by sources, and if existing disaggregation existed for previous years, the
respective ratio by sources is applied to the available total.
4.h. Methods and guidance available to countries for the compilation of the data at
the national level (DOC_METHOD)
• A set of tools is available to countries for the compilation of the indicator. Among them, a step-
by-step methodological guide, an interpretation paper, and an e-learning course. All the tools are
available on the FAO web pages, at: http://www.fao.org/sustainable-development-
goals/indicators/642/en/.
• During 2020,2021 and 2022, FAO has organized regional virtual trainings for Asia, Latin-America
and the Caribbean and Africa on SDG 6.4. and contributed to global workshops on SDG 6.
• FAO’s AQUASTAT team provides continued guidance to the countries thought the National
Correspondents during the data collection time to ensure data is duly and timely compiled.
• During the reporting process, the OCS provides overall guidance, including on metadata
reporting, based on the Metadata Dissemination Standard approved by the FAO IDWG-Statistics
Technical Task Force.
• Data on Environmental flow requirements is reupdated only when detailed methodology and
metadata are provided and when consistency in the values is ensured.
• After revision and validation, data are submitted to the OCS who also ensures the quality of the
data and results.
Time series:
1961-2019 (Discontinuous, depending on country. Data are interpolated to create timelines.)
Disaggregation:
Sectoral disaggregated data are provided to show the respective contribution of the different sectors to
the water stress level, and therefore the relative importance of actions needed to contain water demand
Last updated: 2023-05-15
in the different sectors (agriculture, services and industry). The contribution of the different sectors to
the water stress level is calculated as the proportion of sectoral withdrawals over total freshwater
withdrawals, after taking into account the EFR. sectors are defined following the United Nations
International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities ISIC 4 coding,
1. agriculture; forestry; fishing (ISIC A), hereinafter “agriculture”;
2. mining and quarrying; manufacturing; electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply;
constructions (ISIC B, C, D and F), hereinafter “MIMEC”;
3. all the service sectors (ISIC E and ISIC G-T), hereinafter “services”.
At national level, water resources and withdrawals are estimated or measured at the level of appropriate
hydrological units (river basins, aquifers). It is therefore possible to obtain a geographical distribution of
water stress by hydrological unit, thus allowing for more targeted response in terms of water demand
management.
References:
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). AQUASTAT, FAO's Global Water
Information System. Rome. Website http://www.fao.org/aquastat/en/.
The following resources of specific interest to this indicator are available on these sites:
AQUASTAT glossary (http://www.fao.org/aquastat/en/databases/glossary/).
AQUASTAT publications dealing with concepts, methodologies, definitions, terminologies, metadata, etc.
(http://www.fao.org/aquastat/en/resources/publications/reports/)
Last updated: 2023-05-15
IWMI - Global Environmental Flow Information for the Sustainable Development Goals
http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Publications/IWMI_Research_Reports/PDF/pub168/rr168.pdf
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6664269/Data-Collection-Manual-for-
OECD_Eurostat-Questionnaire-on-Inland-Waters.pdf/f5f60d49-e88c-4e3c-bc23-
c1ec26a01b2a?t=1611245054001
Several documents exist that can be used to support countries in the computation of this indicator.
Among them:
Incorporating environmental flows into “water stress” indicator 6.4.2 - Guidelines for a minimum
standard method for global reporting.
These guidelines are intended to assist countries to participate in the assessment of SDG 6.4.2 on water
stress by contributing data and information on environmental flows (EF). They provide a minimum
standard method, principally based on the Global Environmental Flows Information System (GEFIS),
which is accessible via http://eflows.iwmi.org.
https://www.unwater.org/app/uploads/2019/01/SDG6_EF_LOW2.pdf
Global database on municipal wastewater production, collection, treatment, discharge and direct use
in agriculture
This paper describes the rationale and method to setup and feed the AQUASTAT database on municipal
wastewater production, collection, treatment, discharge or direct use in agriculture. The best available
sources of information have been reviewed, including peer-reviewed papers, proceedings of workshops,
conferences and expert meetings, global or regional databases, as well as country briefs, national reports
Last updated: 2023-05-15
Cooling water for energy generation and its impact on national-level water statistics
This technical note, describing the issue of cooling water for energy generation and its impact on
national-level water statistics, has two purposes: 1) to act as a general informational resource and 2) to
encourage governmental agencies responsible for water usage to gather and report information
disaggregated by sub-sector (keeping thermoelectric withdrawals separate from industrial and
hydroelectric withdrawals), and to determine the point at which lower water withdrawal designs are
more favourable, even if the required capital cost is higher.
http://www.fao.org/3/a-bc822e.pdf
Municipal and industrial water withdrawal modelling for the years 2000 and 2005 using statistical
methods
This document describes the efforts to generate models that estimate the municipal and industrial water
withdrawals for the years 2000 and 2005.
http://www.fao.org/3/a-bc821e.pdf