UNESCO, together with its centre, the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), has led the World Water Day 2022 campaign on “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible” on behalf of UN-Water; the campaign will remain active throughout the year. UNESCO will coordinate the organization and will participate in a series of key events related to groundwater, aimed at conveying a message about the importance of these hidden resources to the UN 2023 Water Conference.
Since its inception in 1975, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) has provided a substantial contribution to the improved knowledge of groundwater and aquifers worldwide. UNESCO, together with its category 2 centre, IGRAC, has led the UN World Water Day 2022 campaign on “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible” on behalf of UN-Water. The UN World Water Development Report (WWDR) 2022, prepared by the UNESCO's World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), and published by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water and its partners, was this year devoted to the topic, providing the most up-to-date knowledge on groundwater.
The World Water Forum is the largest international event dedicated to water, bringing together NGOs, the private sector, governments and international organizations. It is organized by the Forum’s respective host country and the World Water Council, with IHP, the intergovernmental platform for water within the UN system, also taking an important role. The Forum aims to raise awareness among decision-makers and the public at large on water issues and to generate action, thus improving access to water supply and sanitation. It also reports on the progress taken towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Within the framework of the 9th World Water Forum, UNESCO and IGRAC took the lead in the celebration of the World Water Day (22 March 2022) on the theme, “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible”, and organized the following sessions:
The main objectives of the May 2022 International Conference “Groundwater, key to the Sustainable Development Goals” are to:
The conference is co-organized by the French Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (CFH-AIH), UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (UNESCO IHP), and the French Water Partnership (FWP), under the patronage of the French National Commission for UNESCO and with the support of the French Ministry of the Ecological Transition, the Seine-Normandy Water Agency, and Sorbonne University.
The Second Dushanbe Water Action Decade Conference, organized by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan with the support of the United Nations and other partners, will focus on how governments, the United Nations and its entities, other international and regional organizations, international financial institutions, the private sector, civil society organizations, academia, communities, local governments and other stakeholders can catalyze water action and partnerships to contribute to the implementation of water-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Climate Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development and the New Urban Agenda at all levels, while supporting the global response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Conference will be held on 6-9 June 2022 at Kokhi Somon, Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan. The Conference program includes opening and closing ceremonies, a plenary session, several thematic and interactive panels, special forums for regional and major groups, as well as side events.
World Water Week is the leading annual event on global water issues, organized by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) since 1991. Together with organizations from all sectors and all regions of the world, SIWI seeks solutions to the world’s greatest water-related challenges. In 2022, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), as Key Collaborating Partner, will join efforts with the World Water Week 2022 to highlight the importance of groundwater resources for human and ecosystems and jointly contribute to improve knowledge and capacity to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation (SDG 6) for a water secure world.
The UN-Water Summit on Groundwater organized by UNESCO and its International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) will take place in 7-8 December 2022 at UNESCO HQ, Paris, and is planned as a hybrid meeting with the most possible on-site presence. The 6 December will be a Pre-Summit day, devoted to side events only.
The Summit aims to make groundwater more visible in order to better manage and protect it. It will bring attention to groundwater at the highest international level and will use the World Water Development Report 2022 as a baseline and the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework as a guideline to define actions towards more responsible and sustainable use and protection of this vital natural resource.
reference: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/groundwater-making-invisible-visible-2022-and-beyond
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