Switzerland’s contribution to the UNESCO-IHP governance of transboundary aquifers programme

Groundwater covers a significant part of the world's water demand, particularly in areas with a relatively dry climate. The utilisation of the resources in transboundary aquifers is continuing and expanding. However, at the same time, the institutional effectiveness of the governance of transboundary aquifers is impaired by the institutional design around water resources, which is primarily focused on surface waters. As a result, groundwater resource governance regimes lack data, information, adequate management and governance at national and regional levels. There is therefore a need to create qualified technical capacity among all stakeholder groups worldwide in order develop and implement sound policies.
Through UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) the Governance of transboundary aquifers (GTA) programme has the overall objective to strengthen regional stability, cooperation and peace through the establishment of cooperative frameworks for transboundary groundwater governance in selected aquifers systems in Central Asia, the Middle East and West Africa (to exact regions and aquifer systems have yet to be confirmed).
Every regional intervention of GTA will be tailored to the respective regional context, thereby making use of the appropriate set of tools out of a pre-defined toolbox with four main lines of actions:
- Awareness and capacity development: Raising awareness and inducing governance of groundwater among high level policy makers, whilst increasing capacity in groundwater re-source development and management at regional, national and subnational levels.
- Policies, laws, institutions and governance: Effective governance relies on policies, laws, institutions and enforcement mechanisms. Developing/strengthening national/international groundwater policy frameworks and institutions is also expected to trigger increased investments in groundwater at international, regional and national level.
- Sustainable groundwater management, monitoring and state-of-the art technologies: Groundwater needs to be monitored over time in terms of quantity and quality to identify possible negative changes such as over-abstraction, reduced recharge (including climate change effects) and pollution. This would lead to developing/strengthening groundwater management at local, national and regional levels, and fostering increased uptake of appropriate tools and technologies for resource assessment, development and management.
- Knowledge sharing and coordination: Coordinating, harmonizing and sharing data represents the first step in cooperation between countries, allowing to move from diagnostics to actions and solutions, by increasing knowledge generation and sharing among member states and partners, whilst promoting cooperation between them.
In each region, UNESCO-IHP will work in close collaboration with key regional and national ac-tors having a mandate and legitimacy on groundwater, as well as actors having a specific thematic expertise. The programme is projected to start in 2023, with a first phase of 4 years, and has the perspective to last up to 2035.