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IGRAC at the Third World Water Forum
The start of IGRAC has been announced to the international community at the 3rd World Water Forum. This was done in a number of ways. Most prominent was a ceremony of inauguration in Kyoto on 21 of March 2003, attended by Mrs Melanie Schultz van Haegen, Vice Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management of The Netherlands, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, and Mr Mahamed Tawfik, representing the World Meteorological Organization. A traditional well - window between groundwater and society - was chosen as a metaphor for IGRAC (see the photo below). After speeches were delivered, Mrs Schultz van Haegen, assisted by Mr Matsuura, pulled out the first bottle of 'pure groundwater' from the IGRAC well, which was followed by a toast on a bright future for IGRAC.
In her speech, Mrs Schultz van Haegen stressed the importance of groundwater, pointed to the world-wide problems on water and explained the role IGRAC may play to promote that groundwater will be used 'wisely' (download the Word document, 26 KB). The speeches of Mr Matsuura, Mr Tawfik and Mr Jan Ridder, deputy director of the Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience TNO, contained similar messages and focused on the relation between their organisations and IGRAC
During a session on Transboundary Water Management in Shiga, IGRAC's Jac van der Gun outlined the anticipated role of IGRAC in global exchange of groundwater knowledge (download the PowerPoint presentation, 1747 KB). The IAH-UNESCO session on Groundwater that took place in Osaka also included a brief introduction on IGRAC (download the PowerPoint presentation, 136 KB).
IGRAC's brochure (containing a form to solicit reactions) was made available in large numbers to the participants of the Word Water Forum. In response, IGRAC has received dozens of reactions from groundwater experts and others interested in groundwater from all over the world. Their interest in IGRAC is experienced as a support and encouragement to speed up IGRAC's initiation phase and to work enthusiastically on the activities for which IGRAC has been established.