Storytelling is key in building integrative strategies for responsible groundwater management

“The availability of sufficient and sufficiently clean #water is under increasing pressure. Anthropogenic water use increases while climate change leads to prolonged dry periods. Worldwide more and more attention is being paid to the overexploitation of groundwater, groundwater pollution, and the effects this has on the natural environment, society, and the liveability of areas – also visualized by National Geographic Society in the #WorldWaterMap. A new balance needs to be found between extracting and using water and replenishing the system, while ensuring good water quality. Although many stakeholders agree that a change in the way we use water is needed, diverging visions of stakeholders from agriculture, nature, drinking water and industry complicate coordinated policy actions to shape such a change. The required knowledge therefore goes beyond technical aspects – an equally important role is played by communication and water governance: how do we tell the story and arrange things together?

KWR workshop on ‘Sustainable Use of Groundwater Resources: Storytelling with National Geographic’
KWR Water Research Institute organized a workshop at the International Water Association World Water Conference in Toronto with the goal to demonstrate how #storytelling could support building integrative strategies for responsible #groundwater management. A key role was reserved for Paul Nwulu, storytelling expert at National Geographic Society. Paul set the scene by presenting National Geographic’s World Freshwater Initiative, that focuses on freshwater availability, quality, and sustainability by leveraging the development of a one of a kind geovisualization of the world’s freshwater availability. Paul presented the water gap around the globe, using the storytelling approach and information presented in the World Water Map by National Geographic Society and Utrecht University. The World Water Map helps us to understand how complex systems could be made insightful, where and why water gaps arise, how climate change might aggravate them – and even how they might be managed. National Geographic Society demonstrated how to create and communicate powerful stories that inspire action.”

(Citation: Bartholomeus, R.P. – Storytelling is key in building integrative strategies for responsible groundwater management – KWR workshop on ‘Sustainable Use of Groundwater Resources: Storytelling with National Geographic’ at the International Water Association World Water Conference in Toronto, Canada, 14 August 2024)