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Groundwater provides almost half of all drinking water worldwide, around 40% of the water used in irrigation and about one-third of the supply required for industry. However, since aquifers flow underground and are, thus, invisible, the management of aquifers tends to be neglected, even though they represent most of the fresh water on Earth. The aim of the summit will be to make the invisible visible.

Due to climate change and growing demands for fresh water many countries have started relying more heavily on groundwater. Current levels of groundwater use are at an all-time high, with a six-fold increase in abstraction recorded globally over the last 70 years.

• Overexploited aquifers, which can result in water shortages, loss of valuable ecosystems and land subsidence or sea-water intrusion in coastal aquifers.
• Polluted aquifers, caused by agricultural chemicals, or mining residue, among other things. Globally, nitrate from chemical and organic fertilizers is the most prevalent contaminant of groundwater of human origin; unsafe sanitation can also pollute shallow aquifers.

In many regions, the deteriorating quantity or quality of the groundwater contained in aquifers, the bodies of permeable rock or sediment in which water is stored, is hindering access to clean water and socio-economic development. Developing water supplies that are resilient to climate change will involve the management of groundwater conjunctively with surface water.

Both overexploitation and underutilization of groundwater are mainly the result of a lack of knowledge.

The summit is likely to call for huge investments in water education in order to improve the knowledge about groundwater systems, their management and make better use of its potential.

In Sub-Saharan Africa for instance the sustainable development of groundwater could act as a catalyst for economic growth by increasing the extent of irrigated areas.  

The lack of development of groundwater very often is not limited by a lack of investment, but notably by a lack in infrastructure, institutions, trained professionals, and knowledge of the resource.

With over 850 onsite participants and more than 4000 online participants, the groundwater summit will cover a vast array of topics that are considered vital to managing groundwater more responsibly. Topics will stress the need for greater investment in capacity-building, finance, and innovation, for instance, and for greater co-operation in managing transboundary aquifers.

Currently, the great majority of international agreements and treaties cover rivers and lakes, rather than aquifers. It will be vital to increase cooperation for the joint management of shared transboundary aquifers, in order to ensure a more equitable and efficient use of these precious water resources.

UNESCO and are the responsible agencies for the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Water and Sanitation) Indicator 6.5.2 on transboundary water co-operation.

 UNECE has called UN agencies and partners to create a coalition to boost cooperation over transboundary waters. UNESCO is one of the coalition’s institutional partners. A number of countries are also joining the coalition. The transboundary water cooperation coalition will be launched at the summit, on 8 December.

UNESCO will be launching its new publication on

The groundwater summit has been organized in partnership with the United Nation’s International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), on behalf of UN-Water. There will be a series of side events pre-summit on 6 December 2022, and photo exhibitions during the summit.