Groundwater development in the CCOP countries: challenges and opportunities

CCOP stands for Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia—an intergovernmental organization comprising of eleven Member Countries: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. CCOP’s mission is to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of applied geoscience programmes in the region to contribute to economic development and an improved quality of life within the region. As an intergovernmental geoscience organization, CCOP organizes its activities in seven programmes, including the groundwater programme, which promotes capacity building, technology transfer, exchange of information and institutional linkages for sustainable groundwater resource development in CCOP Member Countries. The overview of the status of groundwater development within the CCOP Member Countries will be elaborated highlighting quantity and quality challenges for its sustainable development. Some examples of challenges are the large numbers of people in these regions that still have no access to an improved water source; decline in the availability of freshwater, particularly in large river basins due to global warming; saltwater intrusion; arsenic pollution of groundwater, etc. Finally, the emphasis of the importance of capacity building in sound groundwater management will be shown as the contribution of CCOP to its members. The recommendation to capture the opportunities for groundwater development in CCOP Member Countries will be presented and discussed.