This document provides an overview of the Groundwater Governance project, which aims to improve global groundwater governance. It summarizes that groundwater is a critical global resource, supplying half of drinking water and 40% of irrigation, but is threatened by overuse, pollution, and land use changes. The project brings together organizations to identify guiding principles for sustainable groundwater management. It conducted regional consultations, case studies, and papers on key issues to establish a baseline understanding. This informed a global diagnostic and vision for ensuring long-term groundwater sustainability and security. The resulting Global Framework for Action will provide policy and institutional guidelines and best practices to countries and organizations to catalyze improved groundwater governance.

1. Groundwater Governance
A Global Framework for Action
2012 - 2014
JORDAN DESERT
Andrea Merla

2. Groundwater Resources of the World
Groundwater is everywhere

3. A CRITICAL
RESOURCE
domestic
industrial
GROUNDWATER
represents 96% of
Earth’s unfrozen
freshwater
53% average of total water abstractions in
N. Africa and the Middle East
irrigation

4. Importance of
groundwater:
• 96% of all liquid
freshwater on Earth
• supplies nearly ½ of
all drinking water
and 40% of irrigated
areas in the world
• crucial buffer in
water-stressed areas
Threats to
groundwater:
•
storage depletion,
lowering water
tables
•
pollution, often
irreversible
•
decreasing
recharge rates due
to land use
patterns,
deforestation

5. Groundwater abstraction
it might have a
significant role in
sea level rise

8. Groundwater development stress indicator
at country level

9. “In spite of the efforts being made across the planet to
introduce some degree of management to the use of this
invaluable resource, groundwater exploitation at the global level
is, however, far from being sustainable. Groundwater resources
are being rapidly degraded in terms of quality and quantity, and
the opportunities that currently exist for the strategic expansion
of groundwater use are being compromised, or simply remain
unknown to stakeholders.”
from Synthesis Paper, Groundwater Governance Project 2013
HAITI

10. “The lack of adequate governance hinders the
achievement of groundwater resources
management goals such as resource sustainability,
economic development, equitable access to
benefits from water and conservation of
ecosystems.”
from Synthesis Paper, Groundwater Governance Project 2013

11. It is for these reasons that the Global
Environmental Facility (GEF) has joined forces
with the FAO, UNESCO, the IAH, the World Bank,
and a multitude of scientists and water managers
from across the globe, in the project
“Groundwater Governance
A Global Framework for Action”

12. • BRING TO THE GLOBAL ATTENTION THE URGENT
NEED FOR IMPROVED GOVERNANCE OF
GROUNDWATER RESOURCES AND CATALYZE ACTION
• IDENTIFY AND PROMOTE GLOBALLY VALID
GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR MANAGING
GROUNDWATER RESOURCES
objectives

13. Project process and milestones
1. Baseline
2. Diagnostic
• Status of
groundwater
governance
3. Vision
• Scientific and
technical
knowledge,
regional and
country
experiences
4. A global Framework for Action (2014)
Policy and institutional guidelines,
recommendations, best practices.
• A shared
vision for
groundwater
governance

14. Phase 1. The baseline
 agreement on the scientific and economic issues in relation to groundwater
management,
 consensus on the scope for future action.
Outputs
• Case studies exemplifying various socio-economic, geologic and
climatic conditions: India, Kenya, South Africa.
• 12 Thematic papers synthesizing the current knowledge and
experience concerning key economic, policy, institutional, environmental
and technical aspects of groundwater management, and address emerging
issues and innovative approaches.

15. Thematic Papers
•
•
Groundwater Governance: Synthesis of Thematic Papers and Case Studies
No.1 – Trends in groundwater pollution; trends in loss of groundwater quality and
related aquifers services
• No.2 - Conjunctive Use and Management of Groundwater and Surface Water
• No.3 – Urban-rural tensions; opportunities for co-management
• No.4 - Management of aquifer recharge / discharge processes and aquifer equilibrium
states
• No.5 - Groundwater Policy and Governance
• No.6 – Legal framework for sustainable groundwater governance
• No.7 – Trends in local groundwater management institutions / user partnerships
• No.8 - Social adoption of groundwater pumping technology and the development of
groundwater cultures: governance at the point of abstraction
• No.9 – Macro-economic trends that influence demand for groundwater and related
aquifer services
• No.10 - Governance of the subsurface and groundwater frontier
• No.11 - Managing the Invisible - Understanding and Improving Groundwater Governance
• No.12 - Groundwater and climate change adaptation
 http://www.groundwatergovernance.org/resources/thematic-papers/en/

16. Phase 2. A global groundwater diagnostic
 build the technical basis for the visioning process and the
Global Framework for Action
 make the best scientific and technical knowledge accessible
to policy and decision makers
Outputs
• 5 Regional Consultations to discuss specific
challenges and priorities within the different regional
contexts
• Private Sector Roundtable to explore opportunities
for partnerships and information sharing

17. Regional consultations
First Regional Consultation - Latin America and the Caribbean
Montevideo, Uruguay - 18-20 April 2012
Second regional consultation: sub-Saharan Africa
Nairobi, Kenya - 29-31 May 2012
Third regional consultation: Arab States
Amman, Jordan - 8-10 October 2012
Fourth regional consultation: East and South Asia and the Pacific
Shijiazhuang, China - 3-5 December 2012
Fifth regional consultation: UNECE Region
The Hague, The Netherlands - 19-21 March 2013

18. Thematic papers
Case studies
Regional diagnostics
Global diagnostic
A lot to read!

19. Private sector roundtable:
Public and Private Sector Cooperation
The Hague, Netherlands
21 March 2013
 capture the views
and interests of the
private sector
 explore
opportunities for
partnerships and
information sharing

20. Phase 3. A Vision for groundwater governance
Groundwater Governance
aims at ensuring full and long
lasting use of groundwater
resources and dependent
ecosystem services
WATER
SECURITY

21. Where are we now
Water security SDGs
Vision
Global Diagnostic
Global Framework
for Action
Enabling
Frameworks
Guiding
Principles
• Thematic
Papers
• Case Studies
• Synthesis
Paper
• Regional
Consultations
• Regional
Diagnostics

22. Groundwater governance can be qualified as
“an overarching framework and set of guiding
principles that determines and enables the
sustainable management of groundwater
resources and the use of aquifers”.
Enabling Frameworks: They refer to fundamental
requirements for sound groundwater governance. They
are generic, process oriented, and neutral: clear
definition of responsibility and accountability;
transparent data provision; stakeholder participation
through social organization; etc.

23. Guiding Principles of Groundwater Management : A
set of groundwater specific prerequisites and guidance
considered essential for the achievement of the Vision:
• Recognize Aquifer Recharge Areas to be managed and protected
through appropriate land use planning, and enhanced when needed
(MAR).
• Conjunctive management of shallow groundwater systems with the
surface water resources with which they naturally interact
• Conjunctive management of all groundwater and surface water
resources in basin/aquifer systems, small islands, and/or other
physical/administrative jurisdictions
• Managing groundwater quantity and quality on an integrated basis
(especially as regards the threat of resource salinization)

24. Issues
presently
being
debated
within the
core
drafting
team, and
soon also
within the
Permanent
Consultation
Mechanism
• How should the Vision be
structured for maximum reach
and impact?
• How closely should the Vision be
linked with the Sustainable
Development Goal process?
• Are there issues essential to a
global groundwater Vision?
• What are the priority actions for
the Framework?

25. Issues
presently
being
debated
within the
core
drafting
team, and
soon also
within the
Permanent
Consultation
Mechanism
• Approach to groundwater management
both within and outside river-basin
organizations
• Administration of subsurface space for
construction and other uses (mainly in
urban areas)
• Dealing with the use of non-renewable
groundwater resources
• Handling transboundary aquifers and
groundwater flow, as an opportunity for
international collaboration and synergy
• Need for neutral repositories of
subsurface information and groundwater
resources

26. What is next
Framework
for Action
circulated
and
discussed
with PCM
Approval
of Steering
Committee
and of
Advisory
Board
Dissemination and
Outreach
Activities
• GEF Groundwater
Conference
• Final Project
Conference &
Participation to
WWF6 and other
global events
WATER SECURITY

27. EXPECTED OUTCOME
ACTION BY COUNTRIES,
INTERNATINAL
ORGANIZATIONS, DONORS,
THE PRIVATE SECTOR
AND BY
PROJECT PARTNERS
CATALYZED

28. Recognition of the role of
groundwater in the GEF
International Waters
Strategy for the GEF 6th
Cycle

29. Title of Project
GEF
Groundwater
Portfolio of
Regional
Projects
F
D
Countries
Status
IA/EA
Integrated Natural Resources
Management in the Baikal Basin
Transboundary Ecosystem
Protection and Sustainable Use of the
Dinaric Karst Aquifer System
Protection of the NW Sahara Aquifer
System (NWSAS) and related humid
zones and ecosystems
Russian Federation
Mongolia
Under
Implementation
UNDP/
UNESCO
Albania, B&H, Croatia,
Montenegro
Under
Implementation
UNDP/
UNESCO
MedPartnership – Regional
Component: Mediterranean Coastal
Aquifers sub-Component
Algeria, Libya, Tunisia
Phase 1
UNEP/
completed.
Phase 2 starting
implementation
OSS
Albania, Algeria,
B&H, Croatia, Egypt, Lebanon,
Libya, Montenegro, Serbia,
Tunisia, Turkey
Under
implementation
UNEP/
UNESCO
Mainstreaming Groundwater
Consideration into the Integrated
Management of the Nile River Basin
Ethiopia, Egypt, Congo,
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,
Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania
Under
implementation
UNDP/
IAEA
Formulation of an Action Program for
the Integrated Management of the
Shared Nubian Aquifer
Groundwater and Drought
Management in SADC
Chad, Egypt, Libya, Sudan
Nearing
completion
UNDP/
IAEA
Botswana, Mozambique, South
Africa, Zimbabwe
Completed
World
Bank/
Integrating Watershed and Coastal
Area Management in the Small Island
Developing States of the Caribbean
Environmental Protection and
Sustainable Management of the
Guarani Aquifer System
Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago.
Completed
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay,
Completed
Developing Renewable Groundwater
Resources in Arid Lands: A Pilot case –
The Eastern Desert of Egypt
Managing Hydrogeological Risk in the
Iullemenden Aquifer System
Egypt
Completed
UNDP/
Cairo
Univ.
Mali, Niger, Nigeria
Completed
UNEP/
OSS
Enabling countries of the transboundary
Syr Darya Basin to make sustainable use
of their groundwater potential and
subsurface space with consideration to
climate variability and change.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
In preparation
UNDP/
Uruguay
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
SADC
UNDPUNEP/
CHEI
World
Bank/
OAS
UNESCO

30. Portfolio of REGIONAL
GROUNDWATER PROJECTS
• Small: 12 projects for an
investment of around $35M
• Strategic:
Addresses a variety of situations
and includes innovative aspects
• Most project are completed or
nearing completion
Only one project under preparation (PPG)

31. Groundwater resources sustain life and
livelihoods.
Let’s change the way we govern them and
make sure that they last.

32. More Information at:
www.groundwatergovernance.org
LAKE BAIKAL
THANK YOU!