This report entitled “Groundwater: making the invisible visible” is at the heart of the reflections of the 9th World Water Forum which is being held this week in Dakar.
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Rivers and rivers are no longer enough. A UNESCO report, published on the occasion of the 9th World Water Forum meeting in Dakar until March 26, 2022, highlighted the potential of groundwater to meet the growing needs of the African continent, while surface waters are increasingly overexploited and less abundant due to climate change.
According to the report entitled Groundwater: making the invisible visible, groundwater already provides half of the volume of water withdrawn worldwide for drinking water, agriculture and industry. The world’s groundwater reserves represent enormous potential, but they are poorly known, exposed to risks of pollution and even wasted.
“A growing number of water resources are polluted, overexploited and dried up by humans, sometimes with irreversible consequences. It is essential to use the potential of groundwater resources, which are still underexploited, more intelligently.”
Audrey Azoulay, Director General of Unescoat AFP
However, our dependence on groundwater can only increase due to growing demand for water in all sectors, combined with the increasingly marked variation in rainfall patterns.
Although these reserves are not all exploitable, it is estimated that their volume in certain regions is sufficient to meet the annual renewal of freshwater resources. But some aquifers are loaded with salt or fluoride and are unsuitable (without treatment) for consumption.
As climate change disrupts precipitation patterns, subjecting surface water resources to greater water stress, “groundwater aquifers provide much-needed capacity to buffer against these uncertainties and provide a more reliable water supply,” says the report.