How to regulate what you cannon see: emerging legal frameworks for transboundary aquifers

What natural resource is more important than water? People need it to survive, ecosystems need it to sustain themselves, a range of important socio-economic actors rely on water for their daily business. Even energy is heavily dependent on water. Shale gasrequires tremendous amounts of water to operate and hydropower, obviously, relies on the availability of water in a specific region. Taking into account the importance of water for society, one would assume that we all know where our water comes from. Most of us immediately think of rivers, lakes and, more generally, surface water. But the reality is that almost all available freshwater resources in the world are an invisible natural resource. In fact, groundwater accounts for a staggering 97% of availablefreshwater resources.