World Water Day 2022. Groundwater, making the invisible visible.

22 March is World Water Day and this year the focus is on groundwater.

History of the day:

World Water Day emerged in 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. That same year, the General Assembly adopted the resolution that 22 March of each year be declared World Water Day, with 1993 being the first year of celebration.

The importance of water.

World Water Day is celebrated every 22 March to remind us of the importance of this basic element for our lives. Despite this importance in our daily lives, 2.2 billion people live without access to drinking water. The aim of this celebration is to raise awareness of the global water crisis and the need to find measures to address it in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6.

Groundwater, making the invisible visible.

This year we are focusing on groundwater. This is the water found underground in aquifers (aquifers are formations of rocks, sands and gravels that contain significant quantities of water). These waters, after feeding springs, rivers, lakes and wetlands (such as the Empordà), filter into the oceans. Their main source of recharge is rain and snow that seep from the ground and can be extracted to the surface by means of wells and pumps.

Life would not be possible without these waters. Most arid areas of the planet are totally dependent on this resource, which supplies a large proportion of the water used for drinking, sanitation, food production and industrial processes. They are also essential for the proper functioning of ecosystems.

This is why we need to protect them from the overexploitation and pollution that currently threatens them, which can lead to the depletion of this resource, price increases in the treatment and regeneration processes and even the paralysis of its use.