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Caption: Women draw water from a well in Nepal:
PHOTO: Wikimedialmages/Pixabay
The importance of water
World Water Day; held on 22 March every year since 1993,focuses on the importance of freshwater:
World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access
to safe water: It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water
Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by
2030.
Groundwater; making the invisible visible
This 2022,the focus is groundwater; an invisible resource with an impact visible everywhere
Groundwater is water found underground in aquifers; which are geological formations of rocks, sands
and gravels that hold substantial quantities of water: Groundwater feeds springs, rivers, lakes and
wetlands, and seeps into oceans. Groundwater is recharged mainly from rain and snowfall infiltrating
the ground. Groundwater can be extracted to the surface by pumps and wells
Life would not be possible without groundwater Most arid areas of the world depend entirely on
groundwater: Groundwater supplies a
proportion of the water we use for drinking, sanitation,
food production and industrial processes.
It is also critically important to the healthy functioning of ecosystems, such as wetlands and rivers.
We must protect them from overexploitation
abstracting more water than is recharged by rain and
snow
and the
pollution that currently haunts them; since it can lead to the depletion of this resource,
extra-costs of processing it, and sometimes even preventing its use_
Exploring; protecting and sustainably using groundwater will be central to surviving and adapting to
Day
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