UN World Water Development Report 2022 (UN WWDR 2022)
Recently the United Nations World Water Development Report (UN WWDR 2022) has been released.
This report has been released with the theme “Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible”.
This report describes the challenges and opportunities associated with the development, management and governance of groundwater.
This report is released by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water. UN-Water coordinates the efforts of United Nations institutions and international organizations working on water and sanitation issues.
Key points of the report:
- At present the global population is using about 50% of the groundwater for domestic use.
- Similarly, about 25 per cent of ground water is being used for irrigation.
- Around four billion people around the world live in areas where there is severe water scarcity for at least one month a year.
- The development of groundwater will expand the irrigated areas. This will increase the agricultural yield and also improve crop diversity. ,
- Thus, the development of groundwater will also act as a main source for economic growth.
- India is the largest user of groundwater in the world. In this case, India is followed by China and Pakistan.
- China, India, Iran, Pakistan and the United States account for about 70% of the unsustainable water footprint.
- Water footprint is literally a measure of the amount of fresh water used directly and indirectly in the production of products and/or services.
Key recommendations of the report:
- Ground water data should be collected for monitoring.
- Environmental regulations should be strengthened to prevent groundwater pollution.
- The labor force, materials and financial resources need to be strengthened. This can be done by increasing the number of groundwater professionals among institutions and employees in local and national government.
- There is a need to finance and provide assistance to ground water departments/agencies.
Source – The Hindu
