Investigation

Under the Surface

Groundwater is the ecosystem Europe has always been able to rely on, and grew to consider an infinite resource. This cross-border investigation reveals that the current state of matters is dire: our water is disappearing and what remains is facing near-irreversible pollution.

 

Europe has long been proud of its clean water; accessible, abundant and drinkable. Most of what we drink, irrigate our gardens and crops with, and use for industrial production, comes from deep underground, from within vast labyrinths of aquifers.

This precious groundwater sustains an entire continent, and has helped to turn Europe into one of the most sanitary and prosperous regions in the world. For nearly one hundred years, nations have tapped deeper into the earth to extract water, confident that this infinite resource will forever be replenished by rainfall.

Now our understanding has shifted drastically. Scientists have increasingly warned in recent years that this delicate ecosystem is in crisis. And that climate change and industrial overexploitation have resulted in a dramatic decline in the quality and quantity of underground freshwater in Europe and the world.

Under the Surface project delved into official data from European countries to reveal for the first time the extent of the danger we are facing. 14 journalists from seven countries analysed the most up-to-date official EU figures to create an interactive map of the perilous state of Europe’s aquifers. The conclusion is that our water is disappearing and what remains is facing near-irreversible pollution.

Our stories are also available in Italian and can be accessed directly from each story page. The Italian version has been published in Il Bo Live magazine, edited by the University of Padova.

 

 


Credits

The investigative project Under the Surface was launched by Datadista and coordinated by Arena for Journalism in Europe. It is an international collaboration between Le Monde (France), Datadista (Spain), Reporters United (Greece), De Standaard (Belgium), Dagbladet Information (Denmark), Facta (Italy), and Investico (Netherlands).

This project was supported by the Environmental Investigative Journalism program of Journalismfund Europe, which provided a grant for the Under the Surface: the untold crisis of European groundwater investigation carried out in several countries, together with other European colleagues (Ana Tudela and Antonio Delgado, Spain; Myrto Boutsi, Greece; Zeynep Sentek, Portugal).

Episodes

Episode 2

Who pays the price when there's no water or when there's too much?

13.07.2024
The relationship between productive activities, environmental protection, and conservation is always somewhat problematic.
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Episode 1

The Po River water crisis and the future it faces

5.07.2024
We now constantly oscillate between two extremes: very intense, short-lived events that bring a large amount of water, followed by increasingly longer periods of historic drought.
Read more
Editorial

Under the Surface: the state of Europe's underground water reservoirs

18.05.2024
Water is not a commercial product like any other, but a heritage that must be protected, defended, and treated as such.
Read more

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