 Hello everyone and welcome to this IWA webinar on World Water Day. Our topic today is groundwater protecting tomorrow's resources. The webinar is organized by IWA groundwater management specialist group in collaboration with the Danish host country committee of the World Water Congress and exhibition this year represented by the Danish Water and Wastewater Association, Denver and my own organization, State of Green. The IWA groundwater management specialist group provides a unique platform to address the technical and institutional issues related to groundwater use, management and protection on an interdisciplinary basis and at an international level. If you wish to join the IWA groundwater specialist group, you can do that on IWA Connect and there's a link at the bottom of the screen here. Next slide is just a few housekeeping rules before we start. And notice that this webinar will be recorded and made available on demand on the IWA website. And following the webinar, you will be sent a post webinar email with the on demand recording presentation slides and other information. Note that all attendees microphones will be muted and we cannot respond to raise hand. If you wish to provide general request or have interactions with the other attendees, you can use the chat box. If you have questions for the panelists, please remember to use the Q&A box where we will gather the questions and they will be answered during the discussions later in the webinar. So today we have an agenda where we will look at groundwater as an advisable resource. We will also take a look at how this resource is coming into play around the world. So we will look at the hidden importance of groundwater in Latin America. We will look at the importance of groundwater in India, the value of groundwater to Africa and sustainable production of drinking water based on groundwater in Denmark. Then we will have a Q&A panel discussion and that's why you can use the Q&A box to submit your questions. And finally, we will look at some of the groundwater activities leading up to and during the World Water Conference and exhibition in September in Copenhagen. Today we have the following panelists with us. Myself, who is my name is Tanya Jacobson from State of Green. Then we will have the chair of the IWA Groundwater Management Specialist Group, Stephen Foster, who will give the overall introduction to groundwater as an important topic. Then we will go to Brazil for Ricardo Hirata from the University of Sao Paulo. After that, Fass Alam from the International Water Management Institute in India will present and then it will be Julia Gattu from Drilling for Life in Kenya, followed by Toul Speer from VCS Denmark, the Water Utility in Denmark. And then we will have a moderated panel discussion moderated by Doris Kram from Denmark. And finally, the IWA Congress President, Anas Beko will do the closing remarks and look towards the Congress in Copenhagen. All we hope that you will get out of this session that we have here today is an understanding of the emergent practices around designing water reuse treatment schemes, to comprehend key issues related to sustainable groundwater use, understand how sustainable groundwater management can help achieve SDG 6, understand the benefits of water utilities of incorporating groundwater into their water supply mix, and finally learn the importance of, particularly tomorrow's groundwater resource for future generations. And we invite you because it is World Water Day today and IWA is proud to support the official UN water campaign. So we invite you to share your groundwater story with us. So please use this tag IWA HQ and UN water on your social media platforms and tell us how groundwater affects your life. Is there enough? Is it safe? What needs to be done to protect the groundwater? Yeah, so please use this. And without further ado, I think I will give the floor to Stephen Foster, who will give you an overview of groundwater as a vital resource. Thank you, Tanya, for your very helpful introduction. And it's a pleasure for me to overview groundwater as chair of the IWA groundwater management specialist group, and three other members of the group will be presenting more detail from their regions after I've finished. And next slide please. Yes, groundwater resources are of wide relevance globally to beyond drinking water supply to food production, industrial production, and also to ecosystems. And you've got to get a balanced picture of current use before you can start getting into the management scene. Most importantly, in many countries, it provides a major component of irrigation water, much appreciated by farmers, but generally poorly managed. And very often, the lack of management of irrigation, a groundwater use irrigation, it puts it into direct conflict with issues for public supply. Acra discharge is essential to sustainability of many aqua aquatic ecosystems globally. And it's also our main focus today, a critical resource for low cost drinking water, which is usually of high quality, both in urban and rural settings. And generally here today, most of our focus will be on urban water supply. Next slide please. Yeah, and I'm going to just give you some data on that. Very important for economical water supply provision generally being lowest cost source to innumerable cities and towns worldwide. Somewhere approaching 50% of global population are today and estimated, estimated to be supplied by water wells and springs and the better data on use comes from the EU and the US where respectively 310 million and 105 million people are using groundwater for their for their supply. The natural storage of aqua systems and this is the first message means that groundwater is like to be even more important in drinking water supply on the climate change adaptation because the storage is there to be used. Next slide please. Now groundwater and urbanization has a very direct relationship, but it's, it's invisible. And as a result, often presents some difficulties to management. One has to understand the ways in which ground is distracted within urban areas and outside urban areas, the relationship to surface water use, and then what happens to wastewater and liquid water use. It asks it is mainly served by in situ sanitation, which is the possible source of pollution, or are they mainly served with surge, in which case where is that wastewater going to what is the level of treatment, and how is that affecting aquifers downstream. Next slide please. So, looking at these interactions of urbanization on groundwater, there's increased recharge very often, nearly always, despite land surface in privatization. Why because of mainswater leakage, because of wastewater disposal, and so on. This comes at a price, the price of significant quality degradation, particularly in shallow aquifers. In reverse groundwater use and urbanization can cause infrastructure damage, if it's excessive, and there's land subsidence, and later in the typical urban cycle, when water tables in urban areas, often tend to rebound. There can be damage due to inundation and to uplift problems. Next slide please. So if I now look at some of the main management challenges, well, within municipal limits, there's really sufficient groundwater resources to support the total urban water utility requirement. The sustainability issues arise. The normal solution to this is to develop protected wellfields external to the cities. And this can be sustainable if the land area that they would that they capture their recharge from is protected. There's more severe challenges I mentioned before, from aquifers systems simultaneously exploited for water well irrigation, which is the major concierge of groundwater. In any developing cities and we'll hear more than this from Ricardo and faiz private self supply from groundwater that's nothing to do with utilities is a major phenomena. And it greatly improves water access for some water groups, but it comes this comes at a price and rapid uncontrolled urbanization places groundwater under increasing risk of pollution. And this concerns over water quality and potential impacts on human health in numerous cities. Next slide please. So this is this groundwater in the city is an evolving relationship starts out in my upper picture here. There's a fairly simple cone of depression under the city and most of the wells in the city, normally evolves to external flooding in the city, and some leakage and more discharged the ground with a rising water table in the urban area, which finally can result in problems for the infrastructure. And here in the pictures I've shown a serious subsidence from a Mexican city, and inundation as a result of water table rebound in Buenos Aires in Argentina. Next slide please. So groundwater, urban groundwater management is a very important issue. It's groundwater is more significant overall water supply and often appreciated generally, and often this invisible link between various facets of urban infrastructure. So urban groundwater needs to be practically managed and anything less can be costly and and indeed hazardous. So groundwater too often is not is often the responsibility of no, nobody in particular, and better stakeholder engagement is essential. We need the regulator agents to take a lead, but we need water water utilities more involved. And in the end in the long run in most situations the development of conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water resources is highly highly recommended. Sometimes faces institutional problems in getting it organized. Next slide please. Very often we find in my in this diagram diagram the spontaneous diagram that conjunctive use they take water from the river in the city there are lots of wells and they discharge here. This is not a particularly attractive long term option but it's what tends to arise at the beginning. The better plan situation is where the number of wells within urban limits reduces, and their types of use reduce external well fields are drilled by you wanted to list that are protected and supply the city from outside, and the wastewater from cities is provided to areas where it's first treated and then use maybe for irrigation. And this these areas are not allowed to impact potable water supplies. Next slide please. I'm going to give now a couple of examples of very positive management from developing countries of groundwater in urban areas. The long story the Bangkok story it started back in the mid 80s when the water table was falling very quickly to about minus seven in the in the deeper aquifers these deeper aquifers here to about minus 60 minus 70 below sea level land substance increasing and there were great fears that this would increase the risk of flooding from the sea, because more and more land was was falling below sea levels as a result of groundwater abstraction. The first action they took was to ban water well construction and close some existing sources, but until they provide that alternative sources of municipal water supply were provided. And metering and progressive charging up for groundwater use was implemented. They did not succeed in stabilizing and getting an element of recovery of the water table and stabilizing land substance but now this problem is largely solved as a result of a coordinated effort, led by a regulatory agency, the ground water department of the of Thailand, but greatly supported by the various utilities that provide water for greater Bangkok. Next slide please. Lima is another example in very different Bangkok but also very positive from the point of view of management. This was the trajectory of the falling water table. Through the 1960s and 1970s, which was caused partly by municipal water supply abstraction partly by private abstraction, and partly by lack of integration of the two main sources, the river Remac and the well fields. The aquifer is fairly thin, and there was concern in an arid area like Peru and it's a very arid area. The, the aquifer will be completely dewatered and not available for the future. So the government gave the water utility, said a power is the name of that utility, the responsibility of setting up a special department and taking various actions to improve the situation. First, they improved the artificial recharge from the Remac by doing works in its in its course. Second, they connected all the main districts of the city so that people could be provided either by treated surface water when that water was available and treatable or by groundwater. And thirdly, then they instigated more charging and closure of wells in the worst areas. And this is the result. Within about a 10 year period they achieved stability and minor increases at a reasonable ground water abstraction and the aquifer has been saved for tomorrow's use. Next slide please. The private self supply from groundwater is often a forgotten policy dimension in many South Asian and Latin American cities it's a major issue. It starts as a coping strategy people find that they're not getting a good supply or allowable supply from water utility. And in some ways it reduces reduces reduces demand on the utility and recovers mains leakage, but it distorts water utility operations and has major major implications for their finance and future investment. You can't ban this practice it's just unrealistic and impractical, unless the risks are very serious. Management is most certainly needed and we'll hear more of that from phase and Ricardo when they speak. Next slide please. I just got one example from Brazil, where there are over 9,000 are probably in the order of 14 to 15,000 water wells private water wells capable of providing 40% of utility water supply. Most multi residential buildings will these high blocks of apartments have high yielding tube wells and they use the these tube wells to substitute for utility water. Once they've used the social tariff, but this may great difficulty for the for to laser water utility. In collecting charges for to to to maintain the sewage network. And in the end and in the end this utility got involved with undertaking inventory and making charges to the users in this respect, which helped to balance these two forms of ground water use in the urban area. Next slide please. In urban areas are ground water pollution threats from wastewater from industrial chemist chemical spillage ground disposal and even solid waste landfill in some cases. This in the impact varies widely with the vulnerability of brown water systems it's by no means a straightforward issue, and deeper aquifers are not nearly as prone to pollution as shallow ones. This is your sanitation in particular at high density often results in excessive night nitrate or nitrogen load, and sometimes in in microbiological pollution, and must be regarded as incompatible with the use of shallow aquifers are drinking or supply in many situations. And next slide please. An example here from Natal in Brazil, where this is southern side of Natal city which bridges the real putting it. And all of this area is now heavily polluted with nitrates as a result of in situ sanitation, and the utility has abandoned its use and tended to take its ground water from less densely populated areas. Next slide please. If main sewage is a significant issue in the city, but there's not adequate treatment you often see irrigation of downstream removal areas right with wastewater right up to well heads. Which is serious my practice and should not be allowed. And you can see here that good quality ground water usually falls in this range, but in these cities and this is downstream of Mexico City Leon and Mexico, Hatia in Thailand and the downstream of the Jordanian capital. There are serious ground water pollution, pollution issues as a result of uncontrolled use of wastewater for irrigation close to well heads. Next slide please. So, develop this integrated vision. And we need to see the picture from both sides. In fact, from all sides to make the invisible visible. And this is a big challenge you need ground water specialist and you need to involve a lot of stakeholders to do that. Next slide please. So, I'll leave it there we can pick up these management issues in more detail in the, in the discussion. And I say thank you for attending and hand over back to Tanya for the presentations from the rest of the groundwater management specialist group. Thank you, Tanya. Thank you very much for that very well presented presentation. Next up is Ricardo Hirata from the University of Sao Paulo on the hidden importance of groundwater in Latin America. And Ricardo, please remember to turn on your camera. I think it's on. Thank you, Tanya. And thank you for the introductions Stephen for give us this very comprehensive view of the groundwater importance and problems and some solutions and also I want to thank the organizers for the invitation and giving a possibility to talk about the importance of groundwater in Latin America. Next slide, please. Well, one question I believe groundwater is crucial for the region and although there are some problems of over exploitation and contamination. Normally these problems in our region are still localized mainly in big cities or in more industrialized areas and groundwater resources is still unexploited, considered the total amount of water that is still available for us. But we don't know exactly how important the groundwater is for the countries in Latin America. Because we don't have reliable data about groundwater or even good studies to demonstrate this. In a not so recent study involving some leading hydrogeologists in the region. We asked about the number of wells, the production and importance of groundwater for the country, their countries and the use of groundwater in general. And it's interesting because the answer was something like 70% to 90% of the wells are illegal or even clandestine. It means that there are no wells with such a high irregularity. I think it's impossible to understand the importance of this resource or even have an adequate management. Next slide please. I think a good example about this irregularity is in the city of São José do Rio Preto in Brazil, the interior of my state of São Paulo. It's a city of half a million people, it's a medium to size city, and it's supplied by municipal wells and also from water from surface, water from Ribeirão, Preto River. And in this map you can see the green dots are the municipal wells and the blue dots are the regular private wells. All these dots are regular. It means that these wells have operational license. Next slide please. But this is the reality actually. There are 83 more private wells that supply the public system and we are talking about well constructed wells of 120, 150 meters depth that generally supply condominiums, industries and many other services. Next slide please. Well, there are some countries with a little more control like Mexico or part of Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica. Or even in some countries there are some regions that the government or more local government can control the groundwater, but this is a little bit more rare than common. Interestingly in virtual all country and there are lots that are considered good and modern and where the command control mechanism is still a central piece. But the governments are not prepared to apply it. That's a general normally that happen in many other in the countries in the region. There is no control or even there isn't the structure for good compliance or even political will to do so. Next slide. I want to give an example about the metropolitan region of a Recife that is located in the northeast of the country. Nice place, very touristic. And Recife is a very good example of this hiding importance of groundwater. We are speaking about the metropolitan area of almost 4 million people. 9% of this region, this metropolitan region is a water supply. The water supplies come from the rivers and dams. However, Recife has a 14,000 private wells that add another two cubic meters per second. That's a lot of water actually. So instead of 13% groundwater responsible for much more, actually 34% during the droughts and problems of surface water, this number increases fantastically more than 50% sometimes. And if those wells do not exist, actually the system would collapse. That's an important number. 80% of these wells are irregular. Next slide, please. Well, due to intense exploitation, the cost of the groundwater has increased twice. It means that you have a lower water potentiometric level. It, of course, increased the cost of the water. It means from the natural situation and today the price of the water increased twice. But the people don't abandon these wells because the cost of the groundwater is still 50% cheaper than the water from the public system. Next slide, please. But this intense groundwater extraction concentrates mainly in two regions that in the map in the right side is in red. This very intense exploitation creates risk to aquifer. That also is a very old water. Next slide, please. In some places we can found the water with more than 20,000 years. It's a very confined system. It's shallow system, but it's very confined. It's very particular for the coast of Brazil. But the potentiometric level of this confined cable, the cretaceous aquifer that is below the city of Recife, now the potentiometric level is 90 meters below the sea level with the risk of saline intrusion through the aquifers. Next slide, please. Well, consider current extraction and potential scenarios due to global climate change. We modeled this aquifer and consider the aquifer recharge reduction due to the reduction of rain and the sea water level rise, the sea level rise. With this, we calculate that Recife will lose this resource in 30, 40 years if nothing is done. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. In the delay of this perception of this problem, there are proactive actions by the government and society. That's another problem. It's difficult for them to recognize this problem even with this type of study. Next slide, please. Now, just to conclude, it's urgent to act to protect this tomorrow's resource, the groundwater. We must recognize that the groundwater protection action has to start with the most critical areas. It means that normally we don't have the governments in the countries. We don't have many technical personnel that is almost impossible to study all the aquifer or restrict all the exploitation of aquifer. It means that it's necessary to localize, identify, based on the studies, these critical areas involving in a more adequate mechanism for management and government. It's necessary to recognize that the command control strategy is not good enough for the control of this water. Well, the example below is a map of Mexico. The government established regions or aquifers declared overexploited. Then they produce a list of restrictions. But we do have some good other examples in Latin America, but it's still restrict. It means that normally the law, the regulation, normally try to treat all the aquifers at the same level. Next slide, please. Well, as I mentioned previously, the lack of protection is due to the low perception of society. And Steven mentioned the same thing in this way. We must bring visibility to groundwater through studies, focus on the economic and social importance of the resource, showing the services and opportunities that this resource provides. And we must create training programs for professional, for all levels, for professionals, scholars and the government also. And last, but not the least, we have to create mechanisms to involve users in management, not just the mechanism from the top to bottom, but the bottom to top mechanisms of management, offering services and advantage to be legal. People have to understand that it's much better to be legal for their well than to keep that clandestine or unknown source. The last slide, please. It's just to say thank you for the opportunity. And after that, you can have a discussion and answer some questions. Thank you again. Thank you very much Ricardo for this very good introduction to some of the key issues that you're facing in Latin America when it comes to groundwater. Now we will move on to India, where we will have Bas Alam who will talk about the importance of groundwater in India. Thanks Ania. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where you are. So, next 15 minutes I'll talk about the importance of groundwater in India. Being a such a varied audience from all over the globe, I'll try to give just an overview of what it means for India, what are the main issues where we are. And hopefully at the end, make you an accusative answer to basically reach out and for a more for a discussion that can take place. Next slide. India being a large country, but also it is India is the largest user of water in the largest groundwater user in the world. So we abstract around 250 billion cubic meters of water. That's a lot of water to comprehend. And largely, this water 85% of this water abstraction in India takes for takes place for agriculture irrigating where the 15% for domestic and industrial users. The 15% is less but I'll show in the coming slide how critical this 15% is for the water security. And this water is attracted to around 25 million counter pumps. It's 25 million is larger than the population of many countries, you can say, and this, this number itself is one of the reasons why it is very difficult to regulate water use, groundwater use in India. Given the magnitude of abstraction, it's important for agriculture India being an agriculture dominant country. Estimates suggest that 10% of in 10% of India GDP or 70% to 80% of farm value output comes from agriculture comes from government irrigation. So that shows how important the converter is for India's economy, India's food security is an also likely. Next slide. But was it always like this. The answer is no. So at the time of independence, what you see is that around 1947 groundwater contributed only 29% to the total irrigated area. But in the decades that came after that, specifically around 1960s and 1970s, what you see this red dot is the groundwater irrigated area in India, and that accelerated. Whereas the canal irrigated area, which was a dominant one at the time of independence remains stagnated over the over this next decades. And the reason was no multiple reasons that went behind it, starting with that advent of modern drilling new farms came up so that it becomes easy or cheaper to drill farms, but also the government policies around energy subsidized energy and so making it virtually literally free to abstract water. Also a large electrification network. What it means is that where's a state state funded canal networks stagnated this private boom in ground irrigation farmers drilling their own pumps accelerated like anything. And currently where we stand is that around 2,000 or 63% of the country's irrigated area is provided by groundwater. And mind you that it's not the growth has not ended. It's still half of 50% of India's India's agriculture remains rain set. So, which is increasing so they would be more alliance more more ground irrigation that ground irrigated that will take place. Next slide. Other than agriculture 15% 85% of the converter goes to agriculture with 50% goes to domestic and industry. Just 15% though a small part is very critical. It provides 85 to 95 90% of the rural India water submits water water domestic water requirements so you can say most of the rural India is dependent on Congress. Whereas the estimate suggests that half of the urban India depends on groundwater for drinking water. So you go on water you can say from the bedrock of domestic water security in India. And again, then he has largely driven by the inadequate coverage of municipalities look out inadequate coverage of five water supply which is the common theme I think across most of the global south. And it's been challenged this domestic water security has been challenged by depleting groundwater sources, deterioration quality about which I'll come later. Next slide. So despite it importance I think Ricardo and Stephen has gone has gone in detail, detailing how important groundwater is for urban water security. And, but the common theme is that even even here that groundwater being so important but remain it remains a blind spot in urban water planning. What we mean by urban mind sport is that there is hardly any data easily accessible data or reliable data that tells us how much is the magnitude of groundwater use in urban areas. There is no record most of the wells are private wells that have been drilled by private individuals, either because there was no coverage from municipality or there was inadequate coverage. So seven water supply nowhere no city, at least in India has it. So these pumps came up these private wells came up no record utility doesn't know about them. So they go. So basically under the under the rug, we don't know how much is being abstracted so those estimate I said like half of the urban India these different studies, taking care of taking stock of through surveys or the other measures utility does supply groundwater water through their wells, and that's the only one water they count in their in their books. So the all the private water that private groundwater that is abstracted goes uncovered unnoticed. So recently as part of our IWI group on specialist group on groundwater management. Provided a case studies of 10 cities in global south like in America, Sub-Saharan Africa and India, here's a link of the people of the people that came out, which goes for more detail about each cities. Again, what the paper shows and what the study shows is that groundwater is very critical for urban water security, but they, they is hardly any reliable data and so that's a very big gap that we need more stock taking of what's happening in the urban areas to regulate it more. Next slide. Okay, so now we have set the stage like order being used in irrigation urban areas being so important but why it is so. And the reason one of the reasons is that, especially in irrigation and also in domestic, it provides the individual more control and more reliability. In case of canal water or in case of pipe water you have to wait for someone to switch off a switch on a wall, then the water throw to the pipe or canal and reaches you. Whereas if you have a well what it needs is just to switch on a button switch and the water flows out so it has more control more reliability. Then the other part is that it has high buffering capacity what it means that it's much more resilient to short term droughts. So if a drought comes and surface water storage is generally go drive much sooner. Whereas the day converters, at least alluvial aquifers, which occupies a large part of India remains resilient to the drought short term droughts. So, and then on the top of that in India we had policy incentives about energy subsidies that made groundwater being a very, being the go to source to fulfill your water requirement. Next slide. And then there are consequences of these acts. So what we have currently what you show in this figure the red and the blue, red, yellow and orange are the areas where we are past the limit of natural charge basically what it means that we are affecting much more groundwater than what rainfall or what is the natural discharge happening every year, but it means that the counter levels are going down. And in the future, if they may go down so deep that if they are not accessible or they would be quality concerns. So around currently 20 to 25% of the India's land or administrative needs are under these categories. And what's these numbers like research, such as have come out a critical in that says that unsustainable groundwater use is producing enough food is producing food to feed 71 73 million people in terms of calories food. So that's a dilemma. On this one side, we have non sustainable groundwater obstruction you want to end it make a sustainable but at the same side, at the same time, this this water is producing food for large number of people so it's about food security also lively security of those farmers also how to manage this. So they, what it shows that they can't be fixed, we can't just focus on groundwater, it's a it's an access that's out there. So there is a need to fix it because research also suggests that if we don't do anything. We just let it go in future because of going to running down because of quality issues are dropping intensity might reduce by 20% whereas it might reduce by 68% and go to the region. Again, if we don't do anything. Then again there's a food security issue there's an live near issue there's a farmers income issue. So something has to be done in irrigation agriculture. Whereas in cities, what you see is that these increasing events of water insecurity so after this Cape Town thing. If number of list came out with these two days scenarios, so you will find number of Indian cities in that in that list. So the reason is increasing drought in educate coverage increasing urban population needs is that more and more cities supply demand is much more than supply. So it's a fix. So we have it's very critically important but it's also very unregulated and needs a proper management. Next slide. So that I'll just next few slides will cover what are the some of the pointers or some of the new ways we have to manage it. And one part is this God energy nexus and what we say is that in the middle or the left finger you will see all those blue dot represent 1500 electric pumps where the red ones represent diesel pumps. So what you see in the western and the southern India, we have a lot of electric pumps. Whereas on the eastern side on the right side you'll see a lot of that red dorset diesel pumps. So this is the energy divide we have here. Electric pumps and this energy divides correlate with the right side plot you see where the water is our expected. So all the places where we have a lot of electric pumps are the places where we have a lot of deficient happening and the reason is most of these states the energy is for irrigation is more or less free. So these are these very little incentive for proper to water efficient agriculture. Then they're cropped there are some subsidies on high intensive cropping system so this gives us a way to manage it if we can manage our energy better. Maybe we can manage the counter better. So that's something the one scheme. The one scheme the government is trying to do is solar irrigation and the one we heard about solar irrigation we think our cheap power free power farmers going to pump more but that's where the innovative parts come in. So what the government and what we are trying to do is that these pumps are grid connected what it means is that farmers can sell water sell electricity so they generate electricity. If they need to pump they can throw electricity from the grid but when they're not pumping they have the they can sell it back. So it becomes the solar solar irrigation becomes a source of income for a lot of these farmers. So they generate revenue from selling electricity so that provides them an incentive to not pump more. And that has it's a it's a win-win if it works well basically what it does is that it incentivize farmers to do more water efficient agriculture. It can replace a lot of diesel pumps which are big carbon emitters so it's a mitigation strategy also whereas it also helps the utilities which are under the burden of tremendous subsidies of billions of dollars going into billion dollars. It removes these pumps from electric subsidies and put them into solar. So it's a win-win how does it work how doesn't it work it need to be seen but the government of India has launched this national scale big program number of Indian states are already doing it. In the international water management institute under our project we are evaluating the solar irrigation impact in India but also in other South Asian countries including Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. I'd be glad to send you the further links about this. I think that's a very interesting development that is happening in this area. Next slide. Next part is MAR which is managed for recharge, artificial recharge of water. India's focus on is reflected through this India's master recharge plan. So India has identified at a national level about 1.1 million scale kilometer of area for recharge about 185 billion cubic meters of water. And to implement the program it's 18 billion USD dollars so these numbers reflect the magnitude of the program that India has. And it though it remains a policy it's a plan but it reflects the intent of the government. But other than national number of because water in India is a federal subject federal state subject number of states are already doing a lot of these policies and programs. Government pushing strongly through different scheme and names of on the charge part. And that's again motivated by the realization and the need that these resources the government resources very critical and we need to manage it. Again happy to send further links on this thing. Next slide. So in conclusion what we can say is that these numbers represent that government is very critical for India's economy food security and being India being an agricultural state for livelihood security farmers also. Because of this large reliance on groundwater that has led to very unsustainable groundwater extraction in large parts of India specifically western and southern part. So now the number of schemes managing demand for supply are coming up specifically how to but the challenge remains how to manage this groundwater food energy nexus. So groundwater can't be managed alone it's linked to food security it links to energy parts so how to manage it. So the recent policies recent schemes are good are a good step but the effectiveness effectiveness of the same remains to be seen and that's what we are also studying. I think coming two three years would be critical on how but trajectory takes in urban area groundwater is very critical but the data and research shows that it actually remains invisible. So there is a need for more for stock taking and holistic management of the same. Next slide. Thank you and this is these are my ideas you can coordinate you can reach out to me and happy to take part in the discussion later. Thank you. Thank you very much. For that very interesting introduction to India's groundwater use and especially the different demands of the agriculture world versus domestic use and rural versus urban demands. I think that could definitely generate some interesting discussions in our conversation later on in the moderated panel discussion. We will now move on to Julia from Kenya. We'll talk about the value of the groundwater to Africa. Thank you, Tanya. Hi everybody. I'm going to be talking about the value of groundwater to Africa with the focus mainly on Kenya. But of course with a lot of similarities to the larger Africa. So some of the key aspects that you're going to look at is groundwater is a major source of drinking water in many parts of Africa. And you find that groundwater is highly dependent upon for domestic water supply, rural livelihoods, livestock rearing and agricultural practices in most of Africa. And we find that a lot of these rural livelihoods, you know, depend on the presence of successful water wells equipped with reliable pumps, which allow for the functioning of settlements, public schools and livestock posts. And we find that there's a lot of private groundwater abstraction is especially in urban areas, which is has been increasing over the years, becoming popular despite the high associated costs associated with drilling and equipment of falls. And you also find that water utilities have a key role to play in managing this groundwater because with increased private groundwater abstraction. The water utilities will come in to regulate that and be able to supply to a greater greater use more users. Next slide please. We find that groundwater for rural livelihoods is really important because women do not have to walk for several kilometers, many hours a day in such a water. And because they can use this newly found extra time to earn a livelihood, you know, for their family because we find that a lot of arid areas of the world and even in Kenya depend on entirely on groundwater like this area of this is a picture of a semi arid area in Kenya, you know where they rely on purely on groundwater for their supply. Next slide please. So we also find that some of these communities also rely a lot on cattle for their livelihood. And you find that in some of these areas, there's a lot of conflict that exists because of lack of ground of water and supply of groundwater ensures that pastoralist communities cannot coexist with other rural communities, reducing incidences of boundary tree attacks of a cattle wrestling and water conflicts. Next slide please. So we also find that groundwater is a means for growing food because we find that for example when we talk about Africa. We find that agricultural sector accounts for about 30% of the GDP in sub Saharan Africa. But we also find that, you know, irrigation is a bit limited sometimes due to implications associated with groundwater exploration and construction costs and difficulties in financing, but we find that groundwater really comes into mitigate against effects of prolonged drought that is common in many parts of arid and semi arid Africa. Next slide please. So we also find that groundwater is really important for improved health for remote rural communities, you find that some of these marginalized communities also require health access. These facilities are not able to exist without water because the utilities are far off because these communities health centers are remotely placed. Therefore you find that groundwater helps in the running of these facilities and rural communities are able to access improved health, you know, through the provision of groundwater. Next slide please. So we also find that we also have a lot of marginalized communities that require access to education and education is only enhanced when we have accessibility to water. And as I've said before, some of these areas, the only water that is accessible is groundwater. So you find that, for example, in a school for girls, they have a better management of menstrual hygiene, because these girls are able to access water and the incidences of reduced school hours are mitigated against, and you also find that also very menopausal women are also protected from social stigma when they have sufficient water for hygiene. Next slide please. So we also find that in urban areas that accessible groundwater means improved sanitation facilities for very urban dwellers. We know that some of these most of very urban dwellers do not have access to sanitation facilities because of the way that they come up because they are not really formal settlements and utilities are not able to come in and provide water supply. In most of these cases because these settlements are really informal. So we find that the only source of water that they have is groundwater, which really plays a big role in helping even improve sanitation facilities for urban dwellers because they're able to construct sustainable water sanitation facilities. Next slide. So we find that, you know, there are a lot of stakeholders that have a key role to play in ensuring that groundwater is accessible in many parts of Africa. For example, in Kenya we find that the government has allowed subsidies on solar equipment, which has made, you know, bowels, you know, motorized, which makes it even be able to get more groundwater because the motorized bowels are able to serve a greater community as compared maybe to hand farms. And we also find that the international donor organizations have continued to play a key role in funding for community projects because most of these communities will not be able to access groundwater without, you know, external help. And we also find that the increased penetration of private contractors has helped to lower the cost of drilling, for example, in Kenya, because you find that there's a lot of heightened competition that makes, you know, cost to go lower. So that really helps more people able to access, you know, groundwater. And we also find that manufacturers and suppliers of boholy pump equipment have also increased in recent years, which has played a big role in the sustainability of groundwater projects as spare parts are more readily available. Next slide please. So when you compare with other parts of Africa, you find that some parts of Africa, the cost of constructing a water well is really high. For example, in East Africa, the cost of constructing a boholy is really high. You find, like, for example, in Kenya, you have to spend at least 10,000 upwards to drill a boholy. And in other parts of Africa, you find that the cost of drilling is really low because, for example, in Nigeria, you find that it's approximately 1500 USD to drill a boholy of about 150 meters. These are really big disparities. And, but they are also influenced by various factors, you know, like permission, you know, of the aquifers of the boholls. And you also find that they are the drilling technology is different in different parts of Africa. You know, some are able to do with tube wells, and also depending on the government regulations for drilling of boholls. And you also find that associations play a big role in both regions in self-regulating the industry and weeding out irregular and professional contractors. You know, in, for example, in both Nigeria and Kenya, there are very active water associations that even come in and, you know, help the government, you know, to weed out the irregular and professional contractors, you know, and ensure that there's professionalism, you know, for example, in the drilling sector, which helps in the sustainability of groundwater and avoids, you know, the wastage that comes about with, you know, irregular, you know, and unprofessional contractors. Yes. Next slide. Next slide please. So you find that groundwater fills the gap in SDG-6. Many African countries are still lagging behind in meeting the various targets of SDG-6, especially access to basic and safe drinking water. And groundwater is really the invisible resource needed in bridging this gap. So it's time to make the invisible visible. Thank you very much, Julia. Very interesting to hear how groundwater presents a value to Africa, both in terms of rural livelihood, food security, but also health and even education. So thank you very much for that insight. Now we will move on to our final panelists from Denmark, a country that relies entirely on groundwater for its drinking water. Please welcome Toul Speer from VCS Denmark, who will talk about how sustainable production of drinking water can be achieved based on groundwater. Thank you, Tanja. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to give a talk about sustainable drinking water production based on clean groundwater in Denmark. Next slide please. But before I head on, it's important for me to stress that even though Denmark is indeed a part of Europe, the challenges we face in Denmark doesn't fully represent the challenges Europe is facing on a continental scale. Europe is a continent with very diverse climatic conditions and a continent facing a multitude of challenges due to climate change impacts on evenly distributed. Take a look at the expected future precipitation patterns, for instance, northern Europe is getting wetter and southern Europe is getting drier. With that in mind, I will zoom in on Denmark in the northern part of Europe where you see the black arrows, where Denmark is located. Next slide please. In Denmark, drinking water supply is based on 100% groundwater. That's quite unique actually. The unique position is due to a humid climate with plenty of precipitation and a geological setting that makes groundwater easy accessible. In Denmark, we have no abstraction without permission through a consistent system that has worked since 1926. It's very decentralized with approximately 2,000 tic-tons of water utilities. In Denmark, we have simple water treatment with aeration and sand filtration, nothing else. And we have a total drinking water production of 400 million scubic meters per year. On a personal level, the water consumption is something like 100 liters per person per day. Next slide please. Water quality issues. We have a national drinking water policy that states that production of drinking water should be based on clean groundwater with no advanced treatment, not even chlorination. Next slide please. But it's not an easy thing to achieve in a country like Denmark, a country dominated by intensive agriculture as you see on this figure. In fact, we are very close to the world record with agriculture covering 60% of the total land area. Intensive agriculture is one of the major threats towards the quality of the shallow and quite vulnerable groundwater resources we have. The main issues we face considering groundwater quality are the use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture. Next please. This map gives you an idea of the challenges we are facing. It's from our national monitoring program. It shows the concentration of pesticides in more than 6,000 abstraction wells monitored between 2016 and 2020. The blue and red dots is pesticides in abstraction wells below and above the drinking water standard respectively. In 2020, pesticides were actually found in 51% of the monitored abstraction wells for drinking water production. Next slide please. The national monitoring program shows there is an urgent need for groundwater protection. The solution we apply is a rather strict environmental regulation combined with targeted measures in areas with vulnerable groundwater resources of strategic importance. But how do we find the vulnerable areas where it's necessary to apply targeted measures? Next please. We do that through a quite unique national hydrogeological investigation of the groundwater resources that has been carried out since 1999. It covers approximately 40% of the country and the resources are used by the municipalities in action plans for groundwater protection. The most important stakeholders in the action plans are the water utilities. And if action is needed, a major part of the action is taken by the water utilities. I'm from one of the water utilities using the results from the national hydrogeological investigation as decision support in our effort to protect the groundwater resources on our well fields. Next slide please. My water utility is called VCS Denmark. And just to give you an idea of the water utility I'm representing, here's a very brief introduction. I'm from the very first water utility in Denmark founded in 1853. It's located in the city of Odense, one of the largest water utilities in Denmark. We are responsible for production and distribution of drinking water from mainly external protected well fields outside the city. We are responsible for disposal and treatment of wastewater, stormwater management, and we are a corporate utility company owned by the municipality, non-profit, full cost recovery. So what's our main challenges when dealing with sustainable production of drinking water based on clean groundwater? Well, obviously we are also very concerned about groundwater pollution, or in other words, the quality of the product we deliver to our consumers. Groundwater protection is therefore a high priority. But sustainable production of drinking water is not just about the quality of the product you deliver. It's just as much a matter of the quality of the service you provide. And sustainability is indeed a part of the equation. Next slide please. From our founding in 1853 until the 1980s, our main challenges were keeping up with the growing demand for drinking water caused by urbanization in our service area. Our answer to the growing demand wasn't sustainable. In some cases, the result was over exploitation of the groundwater resources with deterioration of groundwater quality due to oxidization of the aquifers. Next slide please. This is what an increasing demand looks like. It's our drinking water production from 1900 to 1988. The timeline stops in 1988 because 1988 was a year when it was decided to put a tax on drinking water in Denmark. So did it work? Next slide please. Yes, it sure did. From the mid 18th until today, the drinking water production has been reduced by 50%. Despite continued urbanization and population growth. Why? Because the value of water is actually visible on the water bill. That's a path towards sustainable production of drinking water in Denmark. Next slide please. Another important aspect of sustainable production is energy consumption. This is the energy intensity of our drinking water production today with numbers from 2021. As you can see, drinking water production based on clean groundwater is also very climate-friendly. Remember, the greenest energy is the energy you don't use. As a comparison, desalination of seawater typically has an energy consumption of something like 2 to 4 kilowatt hours per cubic meters. In this case, we are at 0.3 kilowatt hours per cubic meters. Next slide please. In other words, well, using less is more sustainable. And I'm both talking about consumption of water and energy. Next slide please. Okay, we are on the right track when it comes to consumption of water and energy. But what about the water quality issues? Well, we indeed have water quality issues. This figure shows pesticides in our extraction wells. In 27 of our extraction wells, we are above the drinking water standard in VCS Denmark. We are indeed challenged on our ambition on producing drinking water based on clean groundwater. Next slide please. We know a quick fix isn't possible. That's the harsh reality of groundwater management. Instead, we are aiming for drinking water based on clean groundwater in 2015. Our success on the path towards 2050 depends on our willingness to take action. Next slide please. This is a quick overview of our actions taken. We prioritise well-fueled management to secure an up-to-date extraction infrastructure. We aim for sustainable groundwater extraction to minimise long-term negative impacts on groundwater quality. We look for alternative resources to minimise the pressure on our well-fueled. We implement preliminary advanced water treatment where necessary. And finally, we protect the groundwater on our well fields to secure water quality on the long-term. Next slide please. And these are some of the measures we apply in VCS Denmark in our effort to protect the groundwater from pesticide pollution in areas with vulnerable groundwater resources of strategic importance. Joint financing of state, municipal and private funded forestation, agricultural land use agreements, plugging of old and unused wells, public awareness campaigns to just to give you an example of one of the measures. What I will focus on in the rest of my presentation is our forestation since it's our top priority. Next please. Why forestation? Well, because forestation is also a top priority on a national scale due to the National Forest Programme where one of the key objectives is to increase the forest cover to 25% by the end of the century. Today the forest cover of Denmark is only 13%. Adding to that forest has been protected through national forest regulations since 1805. Forests in Denmark are, with a few exceptions, permanent. And when we co-finance our forestation use of pesticides and fertilizers are banned permanently. But forest also have a lot of benefits beside ground water protection, production of wood, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, recreation and public health energy from biomass and so forth. A few words about mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions by carbon sequestration. One square kilometer of young deciduous forest in Denmark accumulates approximately 1000 tons of carbon dioxide every year. That's actually a lot compared to the carbon footprint of our drinking water production. Next please. This is one of our larger forestation projects. The Pølle Water Forest, just to give you an example. The purpose of the forestation project is protection of one of our most important well fields. We have done it in a partnership with a private partner. We have done it through acquisition of farmland through land consolidation. And we have contributed with 60% of the acquisition costs. And the private company is responsible for forestation operation and maintenance of the forest. Next please. This is the well field before a forestation. The blue dots is the abstraction wells. There are four in this case. And this is what the landscape looked like in 2014. The white areas on the map are intensive agriculture. As you can see, it's all white. If you go one step back, you can see a map where everything is white. And here you can see a map where everything is green. The green shaded areas are the forests on the well field. In the present, we are working on expanding the protected areas through land and use agreements with local farmers and acquisition of just one step back please. Thank you. In cooperation with our private partner, we have bought 150 hectares of land for forestation, the green areas. In the present, we are working on expanding the protected areas through land use agreements with the local farmers and acquisition of land for forestation with our private partner. Next please. Obviously, a forestation doesn't make sense everywhere. It depends on the context. Consider our forestation and example of a low-tech nature-based solution. I'm not saying that technology isn't a part of the solution when we are dealing with water quality issue. It is. And in some cases, we might even use the most advanced we can find as long as it is necessary. But if we only aim for the technological fix, we might end up with suboptimal solutions. The choices we make, the solutions we apply need to fit the big picture with sustainability challenges we are facing as a water utility on a local and global scale. That calls for a systemic fix. Next please. With that in mind, I will wrap up my presentation with a picture from a rainy day with a lot of ground water recharge in one of our forestation projects. Thank you for your attention. Thank you very much for providing a water utility's perspective on how we can achieve sustainable groundwater management in both short-term and long-term. Now we've reached the time for the Q&A discussion. So we would like to invite all the panelists to turn on your camera and join us for this moderated discussion. And it will be Doris Gramp from Denmark who will be the moderator. Thank you everyone for a very interesting perspective from all around the world. Being from Denmark, I know all about the situation Trolls presented, but I wasn't aware that we also had an important issue of gender equality hence in your African presentation Julia. That was very interesting along with all the other presentations, but that was a new perspective for me and maybe it shouldn't be, but that was it. I would start with a question from the Q&A session that is very general and it is for all of you and so I just put the question out there and I ask you to reflect on it. It's from Elisa Donovan who says, in your opinion what are the main competences, technical and or other future hydrogeologists or water managers should acquire to promote more sustainable use of groundwater? So this is a question about how do we step into the future? How do we get more sustainable use of groundwater? What would be the most important issues? Stephen, if you would start, please. Yes, perhaps I should kick off there. Well, I think that our understanding professional hydrogeologists now have in general pretty good understanding. We are monitoring to improve our level of certainty and interpreting certain factors, but we are a lot stronger than we were 10 or 15 years ago. But where we have greatest difficulty is in communication and communication within the water sector to other stakeholders. The level of understanding of groundwater management, the need for groundwater management remains rather poor in general across the water sector and across even the water management sector. And this area of improved communication is perhaps our biggest challenge. I had two or three examples in my presentation of cases where it was overcome, but it's not easy even in the developed countries of Europe, for example, to have a good understanding of groundwater management needs across the water sector and across the water regulatory sector in general. And also it's also difficult to promote a major involvement in management from the water utilities. It's easier in places like Germany and Denmark where they are nonprofit making organizations that are more closely related to local government. But certainly in the UK, this also remains a challenge. So I think our biggest efforts have to go in putting our points across within the water sector. Yes, thank you, Stephen. What is, would you, would you take me, Ricardo, on this? The main common sense is future hydrologists or water managers should acquire to promote sustainable use of groundwater. Yeah, I think that's Stephen. Sorry, I think that's the point to the main issues in terms of groundwater that is an invisible resource for many aspects. I like to use the expression that groundwater is invisible for official statistics. When you see all official statistics about water supply in the private or even in public system in all countries in my region, but that's in the rest of developing countries. And that is normally you don't see groundwater. You see sometimes water and but the groundwater is just below this, under the radar of the perception of not just the society, but also from the government. It means that people also are not prepared from the government side, are not prepared to think about the groundwater and think about that the groundwater is also a very good solution. Normally, for example, in cities, we can see that the engineer or the responsible for the facility say, okay, I can supply this neighborhood or this part of city using groundwater. But in the future, our dream is to have surface water to get more reliable water. It means reliable, but it's also because they believe that it's more reliable than groundwater. It means that the invisibility of the groundwater is in all aspects. And I think that's one necessary movement from the sector is to get more visibility to do that. And also I think it's a very intelligent expression that for today that is the invisible visible. That's the idea for the whole planet. Thank you. So you're also on the communication line. Oh, yes. Yes. Julia, how does it play out from your perspective? From my perspective, the professionalism is very important for the sustainability of the water sector. You find, for example, in... Let me just use Kenya as an example. You find that a lot of people who are in the water industry, except for hydrogeologists, you find that many of them do not have like formal training. Let me say like in groundwater. Let me talk about the drilling sector, for example. You find that a lot of people who actually practice in the drilling sector do not have any formal training. And that really influences how, for example, water wells are drilled because you find that the lack of professionalism sometimes affects the quality of water wells that are drilled because it really depends on which school of thought you're coming from. So I believe that technical training is important. There is no one technical training that is really better than the other. But I think being able to get some technical training is really important because it helps improve the professionalism in the water sector. Because without that, then we find that everybody comes in and wants to do things their way somehow. But there's need to regulate the sector so that we can have more sustainability. So professionalism is really important. Thank you. Technical training, regulations, and communications. Faiz, what is your take from India? I noticed that you advocated for more data, but you did have a lot of data on overexploitation. So where are you on the road to sustainability? I think you will always want more data. I think one point I take is to understand the nexus part, that it's more and more important to realize that groundwater can't be managed alone without looking at how it links to social part, how it links to food, how it links to energy. So though we need, with the technical competence, I think there's a need to realize to manage groundwater, you need to manage other sectors, and how the groundwater links to other sectors will play a key role for future sustainable management of groundwater and of the overwater sector. I think that's the point I would add other than what others have already said. Yes, thank you. Good points, Trolls. If you could wrap that up, what is the most important road to sustainability in your opinion? Generally speaking, in terms of groundwater as a resource, we need to manage sustainable. But anyway, it's a good question about the main competences needed in the future for sustainable groundwater management, but I don't think there's one answer to that question. It's so much dependent on the context. So what might be the right solution in Denmark will definitely not be right everywhere. So it's context-dependent, I think. And then maybe again, I will mention the systemic effects I was talking about in my presentation. If we are going to find the right solutions for the challenges we are facing when comes to sustainable groundwater management, that's the holistic approach that we need. And as you can see just on the continental scale in Europe, there are different challenges, whether you are in Northern Europe or Southern Europe. And when you look at it at a global scale, the diversity is even bigger. So there's not one size fits all in this case. Also, could I just come in again? Yes, of course. Just to, because I think it will be a broader interest, to contrast the Danish approach with the British approach to controlling diffuse agricultural pollution. And the reaction was different primarily because of the difference in the attitude of the water utilities. The water utilities in Denmark embrace the idea of minimal treatment of groundwater in general, but not universally. The ones in the UK did not. And they saw it as an opportunity to invest in treatment technology and let the farmers get on with whatever they liked. There were exceptions, and we do have some areas of good practice and minimal treatment and land use control, but not nearly as much as in Denmark. And I think the contrast between those two and the way in which the role of the utilities affected the outcome is very interesting. I agree. I would like actually to, how is the water quality with the treatment technology all going on? That must be very expensive water compared to... Exactly. But we had a privatised but regulated water industry which was allowed to treat if by immediate action it could not solve the problem in another way. And so in the space of about one decade, it spent about 1,000 million euros on treatment technology instead of addressing the land use issues. Not all water utilities, but many of them took that route in the UK because they were allowed to. And they passed the cost on to the customer and became more competent in water treatment, but they didn't get involved in water management and land use management. I think this is an important point of discussion within the European equation. I suspect that the only countries in Europe that have adopted this sort of approach that Charles described are some of the German lenders, some of the German cities and Denmark, but more generally it's gone the way that the British intelligence went, which I don't think is the correct way. Interesting. With that in mind, I would like to dwell a little bit on the financing part of groundwater management. I know that you didn't mention that so very much, but I'm also a member of the Euro organization that's on the drinking water committee in the European Water Association. And one of the main issues we're discussing, along with a lot of other stuff, is that how do we get the money to do this? And one of the issues are the profit-non-profit discussion. So if you would reflect a moment on how important is it or what is the incentive to move forward with the groundwater use and how would it be possible to finance all these data and all other necessary measurements that you are aiming for. If you would maybe have a take on that, Faiz, because I noticed that you had something about money and food energy nexus in your presentation. So maybe you had some thoughts on that. On the money part, I think... I'll talk about the agriculture part. I think in the utilities in India remains financially crunched. I think Stephen has much more expertise in that area also given his worst work. So agriculture indirectly, we are putting billions of dollars in terms of subsidies when we provide this energy subsidies going into these pumping pumps. So the one way the idea is there's already so much money going in indirectly. How we can shift that money out or how we can basically put that money in proper incentives to do so in proper incentive. That remains a key. So the example I provided about solar pumping where the plan is a national level scheme, the government will be providing a lot of part subsidies to these farmers to shift to these solar irrigations. So what it does, I said in a way, what it does is that when a pump converts from an electric or diesel to a solar one, what goes away with these subsidies that are going into electricity, subsidies in the future, diesel import bill that goes with it. So I think what we need is an innovative base to get that money out from one part to the other one. And solar is provides one way. On the other side, when it comes to supply like making recharge structures and all, what we already have, India is large number of government programs that do implement solutions in the field. For example, we have NREGA. NREGA is the largest employment program in the world. It spends I think north of 10, $20 billion every year to provide employment and large in terms of rural work and most of these rural works are waterworks, natural resource management works. So the government has been working how to make these millions of dollars spent in NREGA schemes and other schemes indirectly to provide employment in rural areas for better government management. So that remains, so it's all about how we can converge, how we can innovate in terms of financing and these two, so these two examples I think provide a way ahead in terms of getting money. Thank you. Of course, there needs to be jobs to be done. The incentive structure is very important. So thank you for that, Faiz. Julia, do you have some thoughts about the financing part of the African sustainability and groundwater issues? Yes, I think even in Africa government subsidies really help. I gave an example of Kenya whereby we have government subsidies on solar installations because the solar panels are subsidized. And I think really that comes into really help more communities have solarized boreholes because that ensures that they can be able to draw out more water and have more water for more uses. We also find that maybe because of the devolution factor maybe like in our country some county governments also engage in drilling of boreholes and we also find that in some cases whereby utilities are not able to take pipe systems they also invest in the groundwater. They use groundwater as a means of supplying water to areas where the regular pipe system cannot reach. So government really does plays a lot of a big role in financing but we also find that there's also quite some financing also from international NGOs that come in to also facilitate especially in rural water systems. Rural water systems it's usually mostly NGOs and international non-government organizations that really come in to do that financing. Yes, interesting. Actually I found it so interesting I can't remember, did I ask for your take on this with the financing? Ricardo, I'm sorry did you answer about financing? You didn't, did you? Actually I can speak a little bit about my country that we don't have from the government any financial incentive for use of the groundwater. It means that 90% of the use of groundwater in my country is provided by private owner wells and normally it's secure or they use it on money to do that and actually it's because they face one or two problems and the decision to use the groundwater privately is because or the system, the public system is not good enough for provide the water or the cost of the water is cheaper than the regular public water. As I mentioned the city of Hesifi that we have they increase the price of the groundwater because of the reduction of the potential metric level twice it means that they twice more the cost of the water but it's still it's a half price of the public water it means that the people continue using because of this except when I speak about the government or some incentive to use the water except in areas of a semi-arid in the northeast of the country that we have problems of water supply and water security for the population. In this case the government has a very large program that provides wells, drilling wells or sometimes the water is too saline that they also need to provide the desalination plants that is small desalination plants and that it's coordinated by local people of course that the government provide the system and the people, local people in cooperative try to manage the system that is a very successful experience but it's very localized in areas like this that we have some problems of water security but in general it's about the private money for groundwater and also not many incentive from the government even in studies. Thank you so what just to wrap up your presentation what would you consider the most important change necessary in your country because compared to the other presentations you have maybe it's just because it wasn't but I fear that the incentives to be sustainable on groundwater management are not really present at the moment so what would you consider the most important change necessary from your point of view in Latin America? Well we can speak about many actions and depend on the situation, depend on the country and how much water is available for the public or private water supply or even for the agricultural activities. Normally in Brazil except for this area in the northeast you are speaking about a very wet country that we have a lot of water in terms of rain a lot and that can keep for example the agricultural land using this just the rain water to keep the production. In some parts that now are facing problems of drought more frequently big farmers are going to groundwater to try to do that that's one aspect of the country it means that the motivation for the society to implement programs for more sustainable programs for groundwater is too very limited but it's interesting that the country has for example in our states for more industrialized areas you have a very good programs for control the groundwater contamination is interesting because we have much more hydro geologists working or engineers working on quality and the remediation of the aquifer then to provide water for the population because we have a very high technology in place here for example in some states like more industrialized states and also the regulation is much more followed than for the water in general for the water supply Thank you Rikao I think maybe we have enough material for yet another webinar on this so thank you very much and thank you for your very passionate presentations all of you I would just remind you that there are some questions for the presenters in the Q&A box and I will answer some of them and if the panelists would be so kind to answer the ones directed directly to you it would be very nice and I will pass the floor on to the next presenter Thank you very much for participating in this and thank you very much for letting us see how diverse this groundwater management is Thank you daughter and thank you to all the panelists who said everything I was going to say to the next segment which is the congress president for the World Water Congress in Exhibition 2022 which will take place in Copenhagen if we could get you already there on camera we just need to get the presentation ready Yes hello everyone it's a great pleasure for me to speak to you from Denmark on World Water Day congratulations to all of us on World Water Day I'm the congress president for IWA World Water Congress in Exhibition in September this year in Copenhagen initially I would like to set one scene for groundwater protection I would like to set one scene for groundwater protection it's a simple calculation but anyway, you heard Trolls talk about agriculture in Denmark 60% of the area was cultivated and in my country we produce approximately half a billion cubic meter drinking water per year for drinking purposes and for industry and the quality standard for each pesticide in drinking water you know that is set by the EU microgram per liter which means that if we dissolve 50 kilograms active substance pesticides to the total production we have reached the quality standard of 0.1 microgram per liter the consumption of pesticides in Danish agriculture is approximately 300,000 kilogram per year which means that we must believe we must believe that 99.9% of the pesticide disappear with the crops in absorption, in absorption in chemical and biological processes overland flow etc. before it reaches the aquifers to secure clean groundwater for future generations I think that's something you could reflect on that we have it is not easy to combine intensive agriculture with catchment for groundwater abstraction next slide please okay in fact I just wanted to tell you how much we are looking forward to seeing and meeting you in Copenhagen in September in this brief presentation I think we all miss to meet physically meetings like this on Zoom or Teams are very interesting but imagine to meet again in 3D next slide please in Copenhagen groundwater is a special focus area and that is something new in the IWA context and realized due to the growing importance of groundwater in the global water supply the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development the SDGs are overarching the 6 Congress themes and the high level summits remember we have only 8 years now to go to reach the goals you will primarily find the groundwater topics in theme 3 and 6 next slide please at the Congress we intend to discuss various very important agendas of water, wastewater and climate change from the most advanced water technologies to basic wash next slide please groundwater is a special focus area and on Monday the first Congress Day we have a groundwater form a full day among other international capacities within groundwater you will have the opportunity to meet Dr. Stephen Foster and Julia Gassel again next please before the Congress in Denmark through the organization the State of Green has released the white paper groundwater based water supply you have already or will soon get a link to this publication the white paper covers an introduction and inspiration to all aspects within groundwater based water supply in Copenhagen you can really cultivate your interest in groundwater participate in the forum join special presentations look at suppliers and consultants exhibitions and join a technical tour and experience groundwater based water supply live before ending my presentation I want to state something important to reflect on and I read it groundwater flow is so slow that even specialists have difficulties in fully comprehending the time span of the entire site the slow flow has positive and negative effects on the one hand groundwater undergoes a very efficient purification process through natural filtration in the unsaturated zone and in the subsoil from the time that it falls again until it ends up in the aquifers on the other hand if groundwater is polluted it takes years or even decades to remedy as pollution usually originates in more or less distant since of the past effects of the implementation of today's groundwater protection measures will not be immediately accessible perhaps not even in our lifetime nonetheless the objective of securing clean groundwater for future generation demands action now the recognition of this fact requires highly narcissistic specialists and brave politicians that's my opinion and you can discuss that of course next please dear friends and colleagues we have a special responsibility besides innovating and implementing advanced technology and solution the most serious water problem has not been solved yet and we have a substantial responsibility to do more next please so the super only birth rates are available until the 15th of May please make use of that you will get access to the Congress much cheaper the registration is open now and join us in Copenhagen we can hardly wait to welcome you thank you for your attention thank you very much Anna and yes we do hope to see you in Copenhagen in September for the World Water Congress and exhibition can you yes I promise to deliver some messages here at the end of this webinar thank you everyone for staying along with us all the way we have some IWA has some upcoming webinars the next one is on water safety planning tools for development and implementation and it will take place on April 7 you can sign up via IWA's if you wish to join the IWA network of water professionals and you're not yet a member you can use this discount code which will give you 20% discount of new membership if you join before December 31 this year to all the panelists for joining us today and sharing your experience with sustainable groundwater management in your region thank you to all the attendees for attending and as you can see in the chat you will receive the webinar slides and video recording and Q&A report also with the answers to some of the questions that we unfortunately didn't have time to cover during the Q&A session today so look for that in your mailbox and have a continuous happy World Water Day thank you