Focus of World Water Day 2022: Groundwater

Celebrated annually on March 22, World Water Day’s theme this year is: “Groundwater: making the invisible visible.” Consequently, key points include:

• Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere. For example, our drinking water and sanitation, our food supply and natural environment – all these rely on groundwater.
• Groundwater is critically important to the healthy functioning of ecosystems, such as wetlands. Further, in deltas and coastal areas, groundwater ensures the stability of the ground and prevents seawater intrusion under the land.

Groundwater: Overlooked, but Essential

Another main point addressed this year is the historical lack of attention to the importance of groundwater. Additionally, World Water Day states that:

• Groundwater is critically important to human society and ecosystems, but it’s not fully recognized. Thus, Groundwater must be at the heart of sustainable development policymaking.

Leverage the Power of Groundwater with Geothermal Heat Pumps

A solution to leveraging the power of groundwater to support sustainable development is geothermal heat pumps. That’s because these heat pumps utilize the inherent warmth of groundwater for energy-efficient heating and cooling of indoor spaces.

Also known as open-loop systems, groundwater geothermal heat pumps use a pump to draw deep groundwater to a heat pump unit. At that point, the consistent warmth of the water is extracted and transferred to indoor living spaces during the cooler months of the year. Conversely, in summer, excess indoor heat is dumped into the groundwater, which will be cooler than the air temperature during warm months.