The Groundwater Resources Governance in Transboundary Aquifers (GGRETA) Project addresses issues related to Transboundary Aquifers and responds to the pressing need of increasing the knowledge on their physical and socioeconomics characteristics. It is an integral component of the UNESCO’s International Shared Aquifer Resource Management (ISARM) Initiative and the Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme (TWAP).
In-depth assessments have been conducted in three selected case studies:
- The Esquipulas-Ocotepeque-Citalá (Trifinio) Aquifer in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
- The Stampriet-Kalahari/Karoo Aquifer in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.
- The Pretashkent Aquifer in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Second phase
In the second project phase, GGRETA is an effort towards a better integration of groundwater resources into the water management plans and operations, as a part of an approach to enable and foster international cooperation.
The specific objective for the Pretashkent Aquifer Case Study is to build technical, scientific, legal and institutional and hydro-diplomacy skills to remove barriers that prevent international waters cooperation. A better integration of groundwater resources into the water management plans and operations, as a part of a technical assistance necessary to enable and foster transboundary cooperation.
The role of IGRAC
In the first project phase, IGRAC was responsible for data and information management; also IGRAC provided technical support to the project management and transboundary aquifer teams. In addition, IGRAC designed and developed a GGRETA Information Management System (IMS) to store, visualise and share information collected during the three aquifer assessments.
In the second phase, IGRAC was requested by UNESCO-IHP to organise the modelling activities in the Pretashkent Aquifer. The first expert meeting was held in Tashkent in May 2018.
IGRAC organised an expert meeting on groundwater management and development of a numerical model for the Pretashkent Aquifer, shared between Republic of Kazakhstan and Republic of Uzbekistan.
On 15 – 16 December 2015, the final project meeting for the Groundwater Resources Governance in Transboundary Aquifers (GGRETA) project was held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.
From 9 - 13 November 2015, IGRAC Researcher Daniela Benedicto van Dalen has given a regional training within the framework of the GGRETA project. During this training that will be held in Esquipulas, Guatemala, she will train local groundwater professionals on how to use the GGRETA Information Management System (IMS).
UNESCO-IHP and IGRAC have organized a training course for a selected group of groundwater professionals from Kazakhstan. This course was held from Monday the 23th of February until Friday the 27th of February and was related to the Pretashkent Aquifer case study, which is part of the GGRETA project. IGRAC's partners UNESCO-IHE, Royal Eijkelkamp, TNO and Deltares all had a valuable contribution to the content of this training course.
On the 22nd of June, UNESCO and IGRAC organised the workshop ‘Added Value of Groundwater Management Systems' in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The purpose of this workshop was to introduce the information management system (IMS) that has been developed within the framework of the Groundwater Resources Governance in Transboundary Aquifers (GGRETA) project.