Dr. Alice Aureli UNESCO IHP Groundwater Resources UNESCO´s work in Groundwater and Transboundary Aquifers Challenges and Long Term Solutions UNESCO´s work in Groundwater and Transboundary Aquifers Challenges and Long Term Solutions Side event- THE ROLE OF THE GROUNDWATER SILENT REVOLUTION: “MORE CASH AND NATURE PER DROP : Re-thinking global water scarcity and security

J.MARGAT,UNESCO-BRGM,2008 as in the 3 rd UNWWDR Global Changes brought on by climate change, urbanization, ozone depletion, population growth, expansion of infrastructure, migration, land conversion, pollution are altering the Earth and the way it functions WATER FOOTPRINT No institution or country can face the challenges they pose alone “ MORE CASH AND NATURE PER DROP : Re-thinking global water scarcity and security GROUNDWATER EXTRACTION CHALLENGES

GROUNDWATER ? Climate Energy Food SHARING WATER TRANSBOUNDARY AQUIFERS GOVERNANCE, PARTICIPATION COOPERATION + GLOBAL CHANGES

UNESCO IHP INVENTORY OF TRANSBOUNDARY AQUIFERS UNESCO IHP INVENTORY OF TRANSBOUNDARY AQUIFERS

More than ‘273 transboundary aquifer >15% of the land surface of the planet >40% of population Country 2 Country 1 FINANCE+DATA+MONITORING+EDUCATION+AWARENESS+COOPERATION+ CHANGING ATTITUDE What is missing?

UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION on UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION on TRANSBOUNDARY AQUIFERS TRANSBOUNDARY AQUIFERS UNILC-UNESCO IHP NEEDS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF TRANSBOUNDARY AQUIFERS PROPER REGULATIONS, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY, DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES, PEACE, STABILITY, “HYDROPOLITICS AND HYDROECONOMICS OF SHARED GROUNDWATER RESOURCES: EXPERIENCE IN ARID AND SEMIARID REGIONS “ MANUEL RAMÓN LLAMAS, Paper at the NATO Advanced Studies, Varna,2006

MORE CASH AND NATURE PER DROP : Re-thinking global water scarcity and security. Are Groundwater Resources and Human Security intimately linked? YES Dependent Economies Dependent Ecosystems INTERDEPENDENCIES

T. Shah 2002 Groundwater use for irrigation: India: 240 km 3 China: 80 km 3 (IAH 2003) What will happen to ASIA ? GRONDWATER DEPENDENCY J.Margat, UNESCO-BRGM 2008

What to conclude? YES The challenge we all have How to put groundwater and water resources in the mind of people? political acknowledgement of the political acknowledgement of the value and importance of value and importance of groundwater and groundwater and significant national and regional significant national and regional financial investment to establish financial investment to establish the physical and social frameworks the physical and social frameworks for groundwater management. for groundwater management. THANK YOU