In plain English
Water Quality Benefit Accounting
Water Quality Benefit Accounting is a water method run by World Resources Institute. People often refer to it by its code, WQBA. It works in the water quality space.
In short
First-of-its-kind guidance (with LimnoTech and The Nature Conservancy) for quantifying water-quality benefits.
What it is
Water Quality Benefit Accounting is a guidance document from the World Resources Institute, LimnoTech, and The Nature Conservancy for quantifying the water quality benefits of water stewardship projects. It helps companies and project implementers select activities that address shared water quality challenges and choose indicators and methods to quantify, track, and communicate the resulting improvements. Benefits are expressed through water quality indicators such as reductions in pollutant or nutrient loads, and there is no single standard credit unit. The guidance is voluntary and was first published in September 2025.
What it rewards
The reward is a credit called a Water Quality Benefit (WQB). One credit stands for one kilogram of pollution kept out of the water. One cubic metre of water supplied, purified or conserved. A whole period of work is issued as one batch of credits at a time, in the same way a registry issues a batch.
What gets measured
To earn WQB credits, a project has to measure and prove a few things. An independent reviewer checks the evidence before any credits are issued.
The catchment and the kind of water work being done, such as replenishment, saving water or cleaning it up.
The starting water balance for the catchment, before the project.
The net amount of water benefit measured for the period, checked by an independent reviewer.
Who takes part
Standard Registry. Owns the policy, approves participants, anchors each issuance to its evidence.
Project Proponent. Registers the project and submits monitoring reports.
Validation & Verification Body. Independently validates the design and verifies monitored data.
How it works
- 1
The project team registers the project and its plan.
- 2
An independent reviewer checks that the plan is sound and that the benefit is real and would not have happened anyway.
- 3
The team looks after the site and measures the agreed indicators over time.
- 4
The independent reviewer verifies those measurements.
- 5
Credits are issued for the verified result, and a buyer can retire a credit to claim the benefit once.
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