IGRAC launches an animated video to save our groundwater resources

Nov. 21, 2014 - PRLog -- A new animated video 'Groundwater, the Hidden Resource' will be launched Wednesday 26 November 2014. It was prepared by the UNESCO International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC). IGRAC and UNESCO-IHP are promoting the #HiddenResource campaign because although 50% of the world's population depends on groundwater every day, there is still a lack of awareness about the importance of this precious resource.

What's the problem?

Well, while groundwater is the most abundant source of freshwater on earth, it remains a hidden resource. What really keeps it “hidden” is the limited amount of data on its availability, quantity and quality. In other words: we often have insufficient real insight in the water contained in the sub-soil.

Groundwater supplies almost half of all drinking water in the world. The water we drink every day from the tap or the bottles is largely provided by groundwater (WWDR, 2009). Groundwater is crucial to support food production. Shocking but true recent studies revealed that every year the rate of groundwater pumping is increasing globally and that climate change will reduce the replenishment of our sub-soil groundwater reservoirs. Currently, the Brazilian megacity of São Paulo is suffering from its worst drought in 80 years, resulting in depletion of its key reservoirs.  And there are numerous other examples of countries and cities that are facing this situation.

You simply can't manage what you don't measure. Without insight of how much water is stored below ground, you will not know how much water you can sustainably consume until it's already too late. Therefore, more research is needed to ensure safe drinking water for the generations to come.

#HiddenResource

Since awareness is the first step towards development, the #HiddenResource campaign should raise awareness about the importance of groundwater. In order to create awareness on a big scale, it's important to reach the widest audience possible and that's why a Thunderclap campaign (https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/18680) is organized. Thunderclap is a crowdspeaking platform that allows a single message to be mass-shared in order to rise above the noise on social media. This way everyone with Facebook or Twitter account was able to join and it quickly showed to be very successful. Orgranisations such as United Nations, UNICEF and UNEP already joined, resulting in a social reach of 7 million people. On Wednesday 26 November 2014 at 12:00 PM CET, when the video will be officially launched online, all these supporters will share this video through their social media at the exact same time. Please visit the website www.thehiddenresource.com for more information about the #HiddenResource campaign.

About IGRAC

IGRAC facilitates and promotes international sharing of information and knowledge required for sustainable groundwater resources development and management. Since 2003, IGRAC provides an independent content and process support, focusing particularly on transboundary aquifer assessment and groundwater monitoring. IGRAC is UNESCO Global Groundwater Centre, it also works under the auspices of WMO, has a MoU with International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) and it is financially supported by the Government of the Netherlands.  Read more on IGRAC at www.un-igrac.org.