UNESCO expert urges turning floodwater into strategic groundwater reserves

Salalah: Rainfall and floodwater in arid regions should increasingly be treated as an opportunity to replenish strategic groundwater reserves rather than as short-lived surface flows, according to a UNESCO water expert. Dr Abdelaziz Zaki of UNESCO Cairo said protecting groundwater recharge areas, restoring vegetation, improving watershed management and harvesting rainfall could help retain more water underground and strengthen long-term water security.

Presenting a paper at the Water Resources Sustainability Seminar in Salalah, Zaki argued that nature-based solutions and managed aquifer recharge could become increasingly important as climate variability places greater pressure on water resources across arid and semi-arid regions. The approach forms part of a broader shift from responding to water shortages after they emerge towards identifying and managing groundwater and climate risks in advance.

Zaki said groundwater should be treated as a core climate-adaptation resource and integrated into national adaptation and climate-risk management frameworks.

The presentation called for groundwater indicators to be incorporated into drought early-warning systems and for monitoring networks to be linked with National Adaptation Plans. It also proposed developing climate-hydrogeological risk maps to identify areas where aquifers could be particularly vulnerable to depletion under future climate scenarios. Groundwater can also provide an early indication of drought stress, with declining levels potentially becoming apparent before some effects are visible at the surface. The paper called for integrated drought-monitoring systems combining rainfall, groundwater, remote-sensing and soil-moisture data to support earlier decisions on irrigation, water allocation and drought preparedness.

Digital technology is expected to play a growing role in that shift. Zaki highlighted satellite observations, remote sensing and artificial intelligence as tools that could help identify groundwater depletion trends, detect unsustainable abstraction and forecast changes in groundwater levels.

AI-based analysis could also be used to identify vulnerable areas and assess the potential impact of future climate scenarios on groundwater resources.

However, the presentation stressed that technology alone would not deliver sustainable water management. Effective digital water governance would also require clear responsibilities for data ownership and management, stronger institutional coordination, reliable and shareable information and greater participation by stakeholders including farmers, businesses, researchers and civil society. A further recommendation was to manage surface water and groundwater as parts of a single interconnected system rather than as separate resources.

During droughts, reduced surface-water availability can increase dependence on groundwater. Excessive groundwater abstraction, meanwhile, can affect springs, oases and connected surface flows. Agriculture accounts for approximately 80 per cent of water use across the Arab region, according to figures cited in the presentation, placing significant pressure on groundwater resources. Zaki also highlighted managed aquifer recharge, ecosystem-based measures and stronger regional knowledge-sharing as possible pathways for improving water resilience. The broader objective is to move groundwater beyond its traditional role as an emergency reserve and manage it as a strategic component of climate adaptation, drought resilience and long-term water security.