WWD/ Groundwater: Invisible Precious Treasure /Report/

Doha, March 21 (QNA) - Under the theme 'Groundwater: Making Invisible Visible,' the countries of the world celebrate the World Water Day (WWD) on Tuesday, corresponding to March 22 of each year, with the aim of raising awareness of the global water crisis. The theme of WWD in 2022 focuses on groundwater, especially since this water is not visible, but its impact is evident everywhere, and everyone must remember that although it runs under our feet, it is threatened by depletion and overexploitation. Groundwater is an important source of freshwater in the world, as there is no life without groundwater. It provides a large proportion of drinking water, sewage, food production, and industry, and most of the arid regions of the world depend entirely on it. It also plays a key role in ensuring the proper functioning of ecosystems, such as wetlands and rivers, and their excessive exploitation can lead to soil instability and collapse, while in coastal areas, it may lead to seawater intrusion into the ground. Since 1993, this day has been celebrated annually and organized by the United Nations and is intended to raise awareness of the lack of access to safe water for more than two billion people. The focus of this occasion is to support Sustainable Development Goal 6, which is to ensure access to water and sanitation for all by 2030. The idea of this day goes back to 1992, the year in which the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the same year, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution declaring March 22 of each year as WWD, and later declared a number of events such as the 2013 United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation (IYWC), as well as the International Decade for Action "Water for Sustainable Development" 2018-2028. Qatar celebrates this occasion with the rest of the world in recognition of the importance of water and the need to conserve it, rationalize its consumption and manage its resources in order to achieve sustainability, especially since these aspirations are in line with Qatar National Vision (QNV), which aims to transform the country by 2030 into a state capable of ensuring the continuation of a decent life for its people, generation after generation. The State of Qatar is also working to sustain the provision of high-quality water services and is continually striving to upgrade them to the best levels while adhering to local and international health and safety standards, and this is implemented through a comprehensive strategy to achieve integrated and sustainable management of the country's water resources and through the national program, Tarsheed, which succeeded in reducing the water consumption rate per capita in the country by a large percentage. The Permanent Water Resources Committee (PWRC) proposes policies and strategies related to water resources, and approves plans, programs and projects related to the management and development of these resources, in addition to undertaking important initiatives related to enhancing water security and maintaining underground water aquifers in the country, according to the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa). Over the past years, Kahramaa has succeeded in meeting the increasing demand for water in the country, despite the annual increase in water consumption and achieved its strategic objectives of enhancing Qatar's water security by increasing the capacity of the strategic water reserves and increasing the water system's capacity to cope with extreme emergencies, increasing storage capacity from 1,000 to 2,400 million gallons, equivalent to a 140 percent increase in its drinking water supply. In a message on the occasion of WWD, Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres stressed that humanity's demand for water is increasing with increasing pressure on water resources due to overconsumption, pollution, and climate change. Guterres added that water can be a source of conflict but also a source of cooperation, noting that it is imperative that we work together to provide better supervision of all water sources, including groundwater supplies in the world. Coinciding with WWD, the 9th World Water Forum - the world's largest water event, which kicks off Monday until March 26 in Dakar, Senegal, will be held for the first time on African soil, with the participation of policymakers, business leaders, NGOs, donors, and international organizations. The Forum, an event hosted by the World Water Council (WWC) and held every three years, aims to coordinate urgent action in the water sector on three fronts: promoting policy and institutional reforms, increasing public and private investment in the sector, and enhancing public participation. Between now and 2030, Africa will need investments of up to USD 20 billion annually, but the countries of the continent currently allocate only half a percent of their GDP to the water sector. Despite the proven benefits of investing in water for development, water security -or the availability of water in sufficient quantities- remains elusive for many countries, and the Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted critical deficiencies in water and sanitation services, and their serious repercussions on public health. International studies say that this challenge is intensifying in the African continent, where poor water quality is the main cause of about eighty percent of diseases, and droughts and floods have become more severe, in contrast to the decrease in groundwater needed for drinking and agriculture. Most of the world's freshwater is groundwater and accounts for 40 percent of the total amount of water used for irrigation, irrigated agriculture plays a key role in food production, and two liters of water are often sufficient for drinking per person per day, but the production of daily food requirements per person requires about 3,000 liters. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that agriculture faces many complex challenges between now and 2050 in order to be able to feed about nine billion people and indicated that the most prominent of these challenges is the amount of additional water we will need to increase the production of nutrients needed to feed the planet's growing population. (QNA)