In 2022, the international World Water Day (WWD) will be dedicated to groundwater. As usual, the World Water Development Report (WWDR) for that year will be about the same topic: groundwater. Groundwater Summit will serve as the final event in this special year around of groundwater. During the Summit, a catalogue on groundwater management and governance will be introduced and made available online for worldwide use.
Groundwater is a major water-supply source, whilst also sustaining aquatic ecosystems and maintaining baseflow in rivers, and being a critical storage element for climate-change adaptation. Despite these impressive facts, groundwater (being invisible) is ‘out of mind’ for most people. At the same time, water scarcity is increasing, already affects about 2.7 billion people around the world for at least one month per year. As surface water availability decreases (due to human activities and climate change), reliance- and pressure on groundwater is growing. Yet we still do not know sufficient about the state of groundwater resources globally and we do not manage aquifers well enough.