World Water Day 2022, March 22nd.

FORUM:  Groundwater: making the invisible visible'' World Water Day 2022.

A World Water Day on groundwater would put a spotlight on this invisible resource, enhance knowledge exchange and collaboration and thereby increase the awareness of the importance of taking care of our groundwater.

The Observance of the 2022 as International year of groundwater, Starting with World Water Day 202 on 22 March and ending with the UN-Water Summit on Groundwater in December.

Groundwater is a vital resource that provides almost half of all drinking water worldwide, about 40% of water for irrigated agriculture and about 1/3 of water required for industry. It sustains ecosystems, maintains the baseflow of rivers and prevents land subsidence and seawater intrusion. Groundwater is an important part of climate change adaptation process and is often a solution for people without access to safe water. Despite these impressive facts and figures, invisible groundwater is out of sight and out of mind for most people. Human activities (including population- and economic growth) and climate variability are rapidly increasing the pressure on groundwater resources: serious depletion and pollution problems are reported for many parts of the world. 

SUMMIT

The UN-Water Summit on Groundwater 2022 aims to bring attention to groundwater at the highest international level.

Held in December 2022, the Summit will use the UN World Water Development Report 2022 as a baseline and the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework to define actions towards more responsible and sustainable use and protection of this vital natural resource. The Summit will unify the statements from all major water-related events in 2021 and 2022 into one comprehensive groundwater message for the UN 2023 Water Conference.



The hybrid event, based in Paris, will be from 7 December 2022 to 8 December 2022. More details will be available soon.