Water is an important component in our daily lives. It covers over 70% of the Earth's surface but eliminate it from our body, we wouldn’t last three days.
Every year on March 22nd the UN recognized this day as World Water Day and the theme for this year is Groundwater: making the invisible, visible.
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 the industry.
It sustains ecosystems, maintains the baseflow of rivers and prevents land subsidence and seawater intrusion.
Groundwater is an important part of the 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.
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.
