25 August \u2013 Groundwater, which sustains drinking water supplies, sanitation systems, farms, industries and ecosystems, is being overused, polluted and neglected, speakers warned at a World Water Week event on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our duty to ensure groundwater has its rightful place in all of our action plans,\u201d said Gilbert F. Houngbo, Chair of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-Water<\/a>, in his video message to an online session, titled \u201cGroundwater: Making the invisible visible.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the United Nations World Water Development Report 2022<\/a>, groundwater accounts for 99 per cent of all liquid freshwater on Earth. However, this natural resource is poorly understood and consequently undervalued and mismanaged.<\/p>\n Noting that demand for water grows, Mr. Houngbo, who is also President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), underscored an urgent need for policymakers to understand groundwater\u2019s critical role and better manage the competing demands of water and sanitation systems, agriculture, industry, ecosystems and climate change adaptation.<\/p>\n “It is our duty to ensure groundwater has its rightful place in all of our action plans” – Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-Water Chair<\/p><\/blockquote>\n World Water Week 2022 \u2013 taking place in Stockholm, Sweden, from 23 August to 1 September \u2013 features many discussions, both online and in person, under the theme: \u201cSeeing the Unseen: The Value of Water\u201d.<\/p>\n The session on groundwater, which also included presentations from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵESCO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and others, was among the several activities <\/a>Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-Water is co-hosting to highlight the interlinkages between the Sustainable Development Goal 6<\/a> (water and sanitation) and other Goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n These deliberations are expected to help bring the water agenda to the forefront, ahead of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-Water Summit on Groundwater<\/a> in Paris in December and the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Water Conference<\/a> in New York in March 2023, formally known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028).\u00a0 The primary aim of the Conference is to raise awareness of the global water crisis and decide on a concerted action to achieve the internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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