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Newsletter No. 4
April 1, 2007: Dear reader,
During the last several months IGRAC has substantially increased the practical application of its services and expertise in concrete projects. These projects are often a response of IGRAC to requests of the international groundwater community (such as in the case of transboundary aquifers) or IGRAC's initiatives triggered by groundwater related events (like tsunami impact on groundwater). Preparation of new groundwater guidelines was also one of main IGRAC-organised activities in the past months. In addition, some other IGRAC activities will be briefly mentioned at the end of this newsletter.
Tsunami Impact
The tsunami disaster in the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean in South-Asia and Africa has serious consequences for the domestic water supply. The flooding of the coastal areas by the sea and the spreading of pollutants have deteriorated the quality of groundwater. As an overview of the modified groundwater conditions may provide valuable information for reconstruction of water supply, IGRAC has taken the initiative to analyse the effects of the tsunami on groundwater in the region. The results of the analysis, including the modelling are available at www.igrac.nl.
Together with UNESCO and authorities in the region IGRAC is now preparing a mission to the Maldives to assist in the assessment of groundwater resources on several islands of the archipelago.
Example of a salt water intruysion
Transboundary Aquifers
IGRAC is dealing with transboundary aquifer problems in several global and regional projects. For ISARM (Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management) programme IGRAC is developing a web portal. Together with UNESCO, the centre is contributing to a full-sized GEF (Global Environment Facility) project on transboundary (ground)waters. IGRAC is also involved in transboundary aquifer activities on Balkans and in Americas. Furthermore, IGRAC has prepared an overview of groundwater resources in Southern Africa, followed by delineation of transboundary aquifers in the region. All these projects are making use of IGRAC Global Groundwater Information System (GGIS), including Global Overview, Meta Information Module and Collaborative Environment.
Finally, IGRAC participates in a working group advisory to the International Low Commission's Special Rapporteur in charge of drafting a Convention on Transboundary Groundwater
Groundwater Provinces in Southern Africa
Guidelines and Protocols
Experts from 44 countries contributed to a worldwide inventory on groundwater monitoring. The resulting report describes the current state of groundwater monitoring and the needs of the international groundwater community.
Two international Working Groups for development of new guidelines met during a three days workshop at IGRAC office in the Netherlands. The groups are developing the guidelines on "establishing and upgrading groundwater monitoring" and "determining of exploitable groundwater".
Groundwater Provinces in Southern Africa
Other IGRAC Activities
Beside meta-data and aggregated information IGRAC aims to gather, systematize and disseminate more detailed information on important groundwater topics. The first step in that direction is a global analysis of arsenic and fluoride in groundwater.
Development of meta databases on the basis of groundwater projects conducted in developing countries is one of the IGRAC's initiatives to improve the global access to groundwater information. The initiative aims to contribute to the preservation and update of "institutional memory" related to groundwater information. At this stage a project proposal has been prepared and discussed with potential partners and financiers.
IGRAC continues to contribute to various international programs (e.g. WWDR and WHYMAP) and events (e.g. the Climate Change conference in the Hague and the Groundwater Governance and Management Workshop in Cairo).
Fluride in groundwater in Africa