IGRAC's brief on 'Groundwater in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals: Fundamental Policy Considerations' has been published on the official United Nations Sustainable Development website and was used as input for the Global Sustainable Development Report 2016. This report partially followed a participatory approach, which yielded 62 submitted policy briefs that were used as input to write final report.
Groundwater in Sustainable Development Goals
Groundwater in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals: Fundamental Policy Considerations was written by IGRAC researchers Kirstin I. Conti, Maya Velis, Andreas Antoniou and Geert-Jan Nijsten. It was written because acknowledging the role of groundwater is paramount to successfully implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Groundwater is the most abstracted raw material on earth. While already crucial to the health of many ecosystems, groundwater has become central to human development over the course of a few decades. Groundwater is often preferred over surface water because of its relative stability in terms of both quality and quantity. It is the primary source of drinking water for half of the world’s population, including over 1.5 billion city dwellers. In some areas, groundwater dependence approaches 100 per cent.
IGRAC and SDGs
IGRAC raises awareness about the important role of groundwater in implementing the SDGs. Within this context, IGRAC has previously published a position paper on Groundwater in the Sustainable Development Goals: Including Groundwater in the Draft Goals and Groundwater in the Sustainable Development Goals: Emphasizing Groundwater in the Negotiation of the Final Goals.