Stockholm WaterFront no 2, 2020

“Most people do not realise that the global water crisis is primarily about groundwater. Even most water experts tend to forget how surface water and groundwater are linked”. The statement comes from Canadian groundwater champion Dr John Cherry. He is awarded the Stockholm Water Prize 2020 for his ground-breaking research on the water below us, and in an interview with WaterFront he details the acute threats against all of us through the degradation of groundwater resources.

We also learn about how India became the world’s largest groundwater user, what problems this has led to and what it will take to break today’s unsustainable habits. Other groundwater aspects discussed in this issue are the importance of groundwater governance, as described by SIWI’s Jenny Grönwall, and the intimate and complex relationship between trees and groundwater.