Recent changes in seasonal and other pattern of temperature and precipitation as well as melting glaciers have widely been attributed to climate change and are anticipated to stay. This is apparent in the changing flow pattern of surface water with implications on hydropower, irrigation and shipping.

The extraordinary development of PV cells (both costs and production capacity) and pump development open a large-scale CO2 free access to ground water as a major complement to traditional surface water management. Use of Solar pumps has different features: small investment threshold, dependence on ground water availability, differing from surface water flows, can be installed and operated on a standalone basis. They are largely independent of precipitation and melting patterns and require little surface, reducing evaporation.

Surface water is well known, underground water often is little explored. The chances to use underground water are not bad on a global basis: from global sweet water (3% of overall water), ca 69% are bound in ice caps and glaziers, 30% are underground water and less than 1% is surface water.

The seminar addressed the nexus between water and energy in times of climate changes with (i) a focus on Central Asia for the use of surface water for power generation and irrigation and (ii) examples from India, China, Brazil for the use of groundwater by pumps, and the perspective for solar pumps and the needs for sustainable use of ground water.