Groundwater: making the invisible visible

Globally, invisible groundwater resources are under increasing pressure due to human activities and climate change. Our response to this pressure is often not adequate, also due to limited awareness of the importance of groundwater resources. This Groundwater Overview is prepared to showcase the essentials and the credentials of groundwater, placed within the broad spectrum of UN-Water Member’s and Partner’s activities. It is meant to inform about groundwater-related activities, to enhance knowledge exchange and collaboration, and to raise awareness about our most important hidden resource: groundwater.

United Nations agencies and programmes, together with their international partners, deal with many issues that involve groundwater: from wetlands to food production, from sanitation to climate change. Due to diversity and complexity of issues, it is often difficult to recognize a role of groundwater and adequately incorporate it in a decision-making process. Understanding complementarities with other issues and using groundwater experience gained elsewhere is not easy either.

This overview presents some interesting facts and figures, revealing diversities, resemblances and complementarities in groundwater-related activities within the UN-Water Member’s and Partner’s community. It is helpful in understanding of connections of groundwater with health, migrations, tourisms, biodiversity, and many other vital segments of our lives. In that way, the overview might also be an additional incentive in taking joint ac ons across the (organisational, sectoral, administrative...) borders, making the invisible groundwater a bit more visible.

Download the report here.