This year, the World Water Day is dedicated to the "Groundwater" problem. Most of the groundwater is located conjugately over the territory of a number of countries, thus, meaning that water pollution in each one affects the access to qualitative fresh water in the other ones. Well known that one third of fresh water is concentrated in the South America, one fourth - in Asia, about 20% falls on post-Soviet countries, about 20% - on the Middle East and about 2% – on North Africa.
In the XXI century over two billion people are deprived of safe drinking water, over two and a half billion do not have an access to basic sanitation services. The objective of the World Water Day is focused on considering the measures aimed at solving the problems of supplying the population with drinking water, preserving and developing water resources, as well as raising public awareness through educational programs, conferences and seminars, and film screenings.
However, it is necessary to remember daily about the extreme importance of continuous availability of water resources, obviously urging for a cooperation of forces and increased efforts to prevent water pollution. In St. Petersburg the SPC RAS continues research on developing the basics of assessing and ensuring the health of ecosystems, methods of diagnosing their condition and prompt warning of threats to environmental safety; an analysis of the natural resource potential of lake funds is performed with a view to their further conservation and rational use.