World Water Day – France is committed to protecting this vital resource in every way (22 Mar. 2022)

Every year on March 22, World Water Day highlights the importance of freshwater. This resource is fragile and it is dwindling under the effects of climate change, growing demand and the lack of integrated management. France is committed to protecting this vital resource and fully implementing the human right to water and sanitation.

The 9th World Water Forum is being held right now in Dakar. This year, it is focusing on groundwater, an invisible, poorly understood, often overexploited and polluted resource. Yet it plays a fundamental role in the water cycle and in ensuring the security of water resources. Providing 50% of drinkable water for human consumption worldwide, groundwater is essential to food security and crucial to the well-being of ecosystems, especially in arid areas where it is often the only available water resource.

France is mindful of the vital role played by groundwater and it is committed to supporting groundwater research and carrying out innovative projects to restore and preserve groundwater resources worldwide, in line with its International Strategy for Water and Sanitation (2020-2030), overseen by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. The French Development Agency (AFD), for example, is conducting a €6 million project to secure Dakar’s drinking water supply that combines nature-based technical solutions with innovative modes of governance.