This year’s IAH World Groundwater Congress – our 50th – took place in Cape Town, South Africa and was attended by 500 delegates from more than 50 countries. The theme was ‘A Matter of Scale’, and the programme included more than 250 oral presentations and 98 posters, along with field trips and many side meetings. We were pleased to be able to help colleagues from across Africa and from other low income backgrounds to attend and share their experience with colleagues from around the world.
The IAH Groundwater ‘Olympic Torch’ represents sharing of groundwater from around the world. Groundwater is collected and the ‘torch-bottle’ travels to each IAH World Groundwater Congress, where some of the water from previous congresses is used, and the bottle is replenished from a local source. The IAH Groundwater Torch has now travelled from São Paolo, to Brussels, to Wuhan and to Cape Town, where it was replenished with water from the Oranjezicht spring. It will now go to Davos for the 2024 World Groundwater Congress.