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Water of adequate quality is an increasingly scarce resource. Substantial investments in wastewater treatment plants and progress in controlling point sources of pollution have contributed to significant improvements in water quality in recent decades. But a focus on point source pollution as a means of improving water quality is reaching its limits. Water pollution from unregulated diffuse sources of pollution from both urban and rural areas continues to rise. Unless attention is turned to these sources, further deterioration of water quality and freshwater ecosystems can be expected as human populations grow, industrial and agricultural production intensifies, and climate change causes significant alteration to the hydrological cycle.
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Decades of regulation and large investments to reduce point source water pollution have brought substantial gains for the economy, human health, environment and social values. But water quality challenges endure in OECD countries as a result of under-regulated diffuse sources of pollution. Eutrophication, a form of water pollution due mainly to agricultural runoff of excess nutrients, is the most prevalent challenge globally.
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This chapter takes stock of recent information and data on challenges related to water quality in OECD countries. It zooms in on the water quality issues facing OECD cities, the effects of water quantity and climate change on water quality, and the ongoing challenge of managing diffuse pollution, in particular, nutrient loading.
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This chapter looks at the impacts and costs of water pollution to society and argues who should pay for, and benefit from, improvements in water quality. The chapter lastly inventories the range of policies in place in OECD countries to manage water quality and discusses the importance of policy coherence across policy domains for the management of diffuse pollution.
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This chapter examines innovative policy approaches to help meet the challenge of diffuse pollution. It presents and draws lessons from a select number of case studies submitted by OECD member countries and discussed at the OECD Workshop on Innovative Policy Responses to Water Quality Management held in March 2016. All case studies are provided in full at www.oecd.org/water.
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This final chapter presents a policy framework for diffuse source water pollution management and concludes with recommendations for central government. The framework and recommendations are based on the outcomes from the OECD Workshop on Innovative Policy Responses for Water Quality Management, and draws upon the policy analysis of case studies throughout the previous chapters of the report.