Review of water resources statistics by country

Context

AQUASTAT collects statistics on water resources and data on water resources obtained from national sources are systematically reviewed to ensure consistency in definitions and between countries sharing the same river basin. A methodology has been developed and rules established to compute the different elements of national water balances. It is hoped that through the comparative analysis of available country statistics on water resources the most reliable and complete dataset of water resources by countries is obtained and that the results could help harmonise currently available water resources databases.

Process

With the assistance of Mr. Jean Margat, expert in global water resources assessments, a comparative analysis of available country water resources data is carried out at regular intervals. On that basis, AQUASTAT compiles and updates its best estimates of the main elements of the water balance for each country. Calculation rules have been established and are provided in the country water balance sheet, of which the template is given here.

A detailed description of the methodology is given in FAO Water Report 23: "Review of world water resources by country" which can be downloaded as a PDF-document (Size: 8997 KB). A summary of the main water resources variables by country, as available at the time the report was published, is shown in the Table.

The detailed results of the analysis are presented by country and updated whenever new information becomes available:

See the water resources glossary for the definitions of the terminology used in the country water balance sheet.

Your input is required to help improving the results of the compilation. Please send us comments and/or updated information on water resources data at AQUASTAT@fao.org. All information will be analysed, acknowledged and incorporated into a final version of the data set.

Other global data sources

Water resource data by country compiled by other institutions working in the sector are provided by the World Resources Institute, the Pacific Institute, the St Petersburg State Hydrological Institute (I. Shiklomanov) , the University of New Hampshire and several regional institutions. If you know of other data sources that could be in included in the list please let us know.