Catalyzing global leadership for improving groundwater governance policy for local climate resilience

ABSTRACT

A structured adaptation framework links the benefits of groundwater to climate risks, including depletion, contamination, and saltwater intrusion, to support better governance decisions and improved management of demand, aquifer recharge, storage, discharge, and water quality.

Emerging evidence confirms severe and widespread aquifer depletion and contamination worldwide. Along with a drying climate, it threatens water, food, economic security, ecosystem health, and the survival of 2.5 billion people. Poor water and land-use policies, mismanagement, and extreme climate events severely affect groundwater, which comprises 99% of Earth's accessible freshwater. Scientists call for renewed urgency, urging global leaders to act strategically, collaborate, and adopt new policies to sustain groundwater. As global temperatures rise, strategic leadership – a critical yet underappreciated link in international development – is essential to advancing and scaling groundwater governance reforms worldwide. We review an effective example of strategic leadership in a multiagency global initiative to strengthen aquifer resilience. We examine strategic leadership in designing and implementing the Global Environment Facility-funded Global Groundwater Governance Project by Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the International Association of Hydrogeologists, as a ‘Cooperative Program,’ including actionable reforms in knowledge, policy, institutions, and management actions in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and influencing the 2022 UN World Water Development Report. We present a groundbreaking groundwater adaptation framework, adopted in several nations, that integrates land, aquifer, and surface-water management to enhance groundwater resilience. We urge renewed collaborative leadership and sustained funding to ensure water and food security, ecosystem health, and community resilience.