This year saw substantial progress in groundwater monitoring. Apart from numerous content updates that have been submitted to the GGMN portal, IGRAC also relaunched its groundwater monitoring app. Another highlight was a hybrid groundwater monitoring workshop in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Last week, the World Water Day 2022 campaign was kicked off with the launch of the campaign website www.worldwaterday.org. The website makes available a factsheet about groundwater, as well as a set of promotional materials like a poster, videos, social media cards, logos and prints for t-shirts. All around the new theme: Groundwater, making the invisible visible.
From 6 to 9 December, UNESCO-IHP organised the ISARM2021 conference on ‘Transboundary aquifers: challenges and the way forward’. This 4-day event was a hybrid event with several speakers attending in Paris, France, and many more participating online.
During the closing session of the ISARM2021 conference in Paris, France, representatives of UNESCO-IHP and the Government of the Netherlands signed a new partnership agreement regarding IGRAC. This new agreement will become effective on the 1st of January 2022 and will last for six years. The signing of a new agreement until 2028 is a new chapter in a long-standing and successful cooperation between the Government of the Netherlands and UNESCO.
IGRAC has published the new Transboundary Aquifers of the World Map (TBA Map) 2021. The TBA Map 2021 shows 468 identified transboundary aquifers/aquifer systems underlying almost every nation. The new map will be launched at the opening ceremony of the ISARM 2021 Conference.
