Paris, 8 December 2022 (TDI): The United Nations (UN) Groundwater Summit 2022 started in Paris on 7 December. The greatest liquid freshwater resource in the world is the subject of the UN-Water Summit on Groundwater.

The key points of the conference are to highlight the significance of safeguarding groundwater and approaches to use it sustainably.

UN-Water, UNESCO, and the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) are jointly coordinating this two-day summit.

The goal of the Conference

Nearly half of the water is used for drinking, nearly 40% for irrigation, and around one-third of the supplies needed for the industry come from groundwater.

Aquifers are disregarded since they run underground and are hence unseen but they account for the majority of the fresh water on Earth, making the unseen visible will be the summit’s main goal.

So the summit aims to put groundwater on the political agenda at the international level to ensure that this resource, which will be crucial in reducing the effects of climate change in the coming decades, is thoroughly understood and managed.

Moreover, it aims to increase understanding of groundwater management opportunities and difficulties, as well as groundwater conservation.

The conference will also commemorate the conclusion of UN-2022 Water’s “Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible” campaign.

Furthermore, the five pillars of the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework will be the center of the discussions. The pillars were unveiled in June 2020.

These include data and information, capacity development, innovation, financing, and governance. The UN 2023 Water Conference will provide the summit’s main conclusions in New York in March 2023.

Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible

UNESCO and IGRAC started the campaign “Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible” on World Water Day 2022.

The UN-Water Summit 2022 concludes this campaign. The UNESCO and IGRAC together planned and organized various events related to groundwater.

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Furthermore, the campaign on groundwater aimed to draw attention to the underutilized water resource, promote information sharing and teamwork and raise public awareness of the significance of protecting our groundwater resources.