IWAVE Pilot Studies Reaching Milestones

The IAEA Water Availability Enhancement Project (IWAVE Project) is directed to enabling Member States to enhance the availability of fresh water through comprehensive assessments of national water resources. A lack of adequate scientific data on water resources has been recognized for many decades; these problems persist as evidenced by the water issues that are part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). IWAVE intends to enhance the availability of fresh water through strengthening the capacity of Member States to conduct comprehensive assessments. Fully realized comprehensive assessments will include water quality, water quantity and water use, as well as resource vulnerability and sustainability. The IWAVE Project will focus on the fundamental hydrological data and information that are essential for conducting a comprehensive national water resource assessment. Gaps in hydrological data and information are particularly acute with respect to groundwater resources, which represent 97% of all freshwater resources. Groundwater holds great potential for many countries to address their national water crisis. Isotopic techniques count among the tools and approaches that could be used to improve the understanding of hydrological systems and assessments, thus they will be advocated when they are the best approach to solving a specific Member State hydrological gap. The IWAVE Project has two pilot studies underway and a third is anticipated to start in 2011. The hydrological settings of these three pilot studies range from hyper-arid to tropical and will provide a thorough evaluation of the IWAVE Project approach. The milestones reached to date are listed below for each of the pilot studies.