Cabinet reviews report of WB on importance of groundwater

Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) of the cabinet shed light on a report issued by the World Bank (WB) under the rubric “groundwater is key to protecting global ecosystems”.

Often referred to as “blue gold,” groundwater is our most vital freshwater resource. A hidden treasure beneath our feet, it serves as a crucial natural capital asset essential for meeting human water needs. Remarkably, groundwater accounts for nearly half of the water withdrawn for domestic use worldwide and supports about 43% of all irrigation, nourishing 38% of the planet’s irrigated farmland, the report said.

Less well known is that groundwater sustains a broad range of ecosystems critical to livelihoods, especially in climate frontier areas. This is because when hidden water tables meet the Earth’s surface, life can thrive even in the driest locations, the report said. 

Offering refuge during times of drought, groundwater acts like a water savings account that can support ecosystems with the moisture required to survive, even as precipitation dwindles such ecosystems can range from desert springs to mountain meadows and streams, to coastal wetlands and forests. Often, they are hot spots for biological diversity worldwide supporting rare and endemic species. They also remain essential lifelines for rural communities, especially pastoralists, who depend on the vitality of these ecosystems, the report added. 

Now, new data at the global and regional level using machine-learning algorithms and a wide range of archival and local sources is bringing these ecosystems out of the shadows and into the spotlight. A recent study used 30,000 data points of confirmed groundwater-dependent ecosystem locations to train a computer model to identify them at scale based on satellite data. This novel machine learning–enhanced dataset reveals that nearly 60% of groundwater-dependent ecosystems co-exist with pastoral lands, providing critical services for both wildlife and livestock, it added. 

A World Bank database highlights the diversity of these ecosystems and their importance to rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. With support from the Global Water Security & Sanitation Partnership (GWSP), the database compiled various sources reflecting local and academic knowledge to identify more than 250 ecosystems reliant on groundwater, it said.