Water Quality Standards Pass Rate (PI0478)

This metric is intended to capture the percent of samples passing quality standards according to national or regional norms. Water quality affects many social and environmental outcomes, including human and ecological health. In the United States, organizations may seek further guidance on water quality standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (https://www.epa.gov/wqc/basic-information-water-quality-criteria). The World Health Organization provides additional drinking water quality standards (https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/water-sanitation-and-health/water-safety-and-quality/drinking-water-quality-guidelines).

These are administrative data and should come from the service provider (for example, the utility company).

This indicator aligns with IBNET 15.3-15.4 (https://www.ib-net.org/toolkit/ibnet-indicators/quality-of-service/).

In some contexts, this metric can serve as an indicator of whether the outcome being sought by an investor or organization is occurring (the WHAT dimension of impact). For more on the alignment of IRIS metrics to the five dimensions of impact, see IRIS+ and the Five Dimensions of Impact (https://iris.thegiin.org/document/iris-and-the-five-dimensions/). No single metric is sufficient to understand an impact; rather, metrics are selected as a set across all dimensions of impact. The selection of metrics to measure and describe the five dimensions should be based on best practice and evidence.