Sustainable Solutions
14 May 2019
The purpose of the document entitled Groundwater Governance – A Global Framework for Action is to make the importance of sustainable groundwater governance clear to political decision-makers.
The aim of the project, conducted between 2011 and 2015, was to bring attention at the global level to the importance of groundwater, and to disseminate the importance of appropriate groundwater management and governance through the presentation of already implemented best practices.
The international organisations that participated in and conducted the project were the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the UNESCO-International Hydrology Programme (IHP), the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) and the World Bank.
In the first phase of the project, the available stocks of groundwater were mapped, the country and regional-level databases were integrated, and case studies were produced. After that, a team of specialists created a global action plan consisting of regulations, directives, recommendations and best practices, aimed at the transborder development of groundwater governance.
The document containing the directives presents the role of groundwater, the variety of groundwater governance and use around the world, covering social, economic and political aspects, too. The document reviews financial and efficiency considerations, the subsystems that are in mutual dependency relationships with groundwater, the supporting systems of institutions, and presents the importance and the practical aspects of planning and management processes associated with groundwater in detail.
The global framework document can be downloaded in English from the website of the Global Groundwater Project.
The design and implementation of complex water engineering solutions for developing countries has always been and still is a distinguished area of Hungary’s international cooperation. Hungarian experts have several success stories from over the years in providing solutions in – amongst others – water management, well drilling and in irrigation.
S-Metalltech 98 Ltd founded in 1998 works on one hand as a R&D workshop for universities and industrial companies and on the other hand as a manufacturing base of special materials applied in the field of environmental protection, electrical industry, automotive industry and nuclear reactor technology – cooperating with many of home and foreign partners.
The Public Relations Directorate of the University of Szeged has announced that a system for forecasting precipitation and flash floods is being implemented in the Hungarian–Serbian border region. The project will provide valuable assistance for preventing damage in the future.
The water crisis – that is the theme of the year’s most important event in Hungarian diplomacy, the Budapest Water Summit to be held on 15-17 October. Water shortages and the severe pollution of water resources are hazards that many hundreds of millions of people face – preventing the catastrophe is everyone’s shared task and responsibility.
The Sustainable Development Goals – adopted in the Summit of Prime Ministers and Heads of State between 25 and 27 September 2015 – are based on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
It is a necessity to pay more attention to the ever increasing pollution of the waters. Conventional waste water treatments are not suitable to remove all the incoming pollutants in the treatment plants. That is the reason why Nyírségvíz Zrt. has started a development program.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have produced a water management manual based on the principles of green infrastructure. The purpose of the publication is to popularise the solutions, and to present efficient and sustainable projects already in operation that use green or hybrid (traditional – gray and natural – green) infrastructural solutions in the field of water management.
There is no life without water – this is an unquestionable truth for everybody, but has anyone ever thought of the fact that without water there is no development, either? Talking either about the basic fact that water is essential for the development of plants, or the ingenious inventions of later ages, we have to admit that water significantly determines our lives.
At the global level, three of every four jobs are related to water in some way. The 2016 World Water Development Report examines the links between water and jobs, employment and economic development. The key findings of the report are summarised below.
