The Groundwater Project

The Groundwater Project Providing free groundwater education to the world for the benefit of humanity and ecosystems.

Groundwater: The Invisible Resource That Sustains Billions — And the Knowledge Gap That Threatens ItThere is a global fr...
08/26/2026

Groundwater: The Invisible Resource That Sustains Billions — And the Knowledge Gap That Threatens It
There is a global freshwater crisis. And one of its root causes is not scarcity, it's lack of understanding.
Over 2 billion people depend on groundwater for drinking, irrigation, and sanitation. Yet outside the hydrogeology community, awareness of this vital resource remains critically low, and so does the human capacity to manage it sustainably.
That's why The Groundwater Project exists.
Founded in 2017 by Dr. John Cherry, recipient of the 2020 Stockholm Water Prize, The Groundwater Project is a Canadian-registered charitable nonprofit with a clear mission: to create and provide free, high-quality groundwater educational materials to the world.
Led by a small staff and over 1,000 volunteers, including authors, reviewers, editors, and translators from across the globe, the Project has already achieved remarkable reach:
• 📚 Over 3 million free book downloads
• 🌐 Readers in virtually every country
• 🗣️ Materials available in multiple languages
• 🎯 Free access for students, professionals, and decision-makers worldwide
But this work depends entirely on you.
The Groundwater Project operates solely through private donations. And there are three powerful ways to contribute:
🕐 Donate your time: Help close the groundwater knowledge gap by volunteering as a translator. If you speak a language other than English and care about groundwater, science, or education, we invite you to join us.
💰 Donate your money: Every contribution helps produce new books, expand translations, support the coordination team, and keep all materials free. Donations are tax-deductible in Canada and the USA. Donate here →
🔁 Donate your reach: Perhaps the simplest yet most powerful act: share this message. Share it with a colleague, a student, a policymaker, or your entire network. Each share is a seed that can grow into awareness, action, and change.
💧 Groundwater is invisible, but its importance is not. Knowledge is the first step to protection, and you can help spread it.
➡️ Learn more and get involved: gw-project.org
🔹

🌍 Water doesn't speak one language. Neither should the science that protects it.A Glossary of Hydrogeology, one of The G...
08/24/2026

🌍 Water doesn't speak one language. Neither should the science that protects it.
A Glossary of Hydrogeology, one of The Groundwater Project's key publications, is set to be translated into the 11 most widely spoken languages in the world.

Why this matters:
Over 2.5 billion people depend on groundwater for their daily drinking water. Yet the science that governs how we understand, manage, and protect that water has historically been locked behind a single language. When hydrogeology education exists only in English, it creates a knowledge divide that affects students, professionals, and entire communities who need this expertise the most.

The 11 most spoken languages globally reach billions of speakers across every continent. By translating this essential reference into these languages, we are not just converting words. We are building local capacity, empowering water professionals in their own linguistic context, and ensuring that the science of groundwater reaches the people who live with it every day.

This is what we mean by Making Groundwater Understandable.

We are currently seeking volunteer translators for six languages:
🔸 Hindi 🔸 Arabic 🔸 Bengali 🔸 Indonesian 🔸 Russian 🔸 Urdu

If you have a background in hydrogeology or a related field and fluency in any of these languages, your contribution could directly expand access to groundwater science for millions of people.

Become part of a global movement to make hydrogeology education open, free, and multilingual. 💧

Sponsor Highlight: WJ Canada 💧We are thrilled to spotlight WJ Canada as a valued sponsor of The Groundwater Project. The...
08/21/2026

Sponsor Highlight: WJ Canada 💧

We are thrilled to spotlight WJ Canada as a valued sponsor of The Groundwater Project. Their generous support helps us continue our mission of making groundwater knowledge freely accessible to everyone, everywhere.

As Water Management Experts | WJ Canada, the company brings over four decades of global experience in tailored water management solutions. Part of the WJ Group, WJ Canada specializes in dewatering and groundwater control, water treatment, well drilling, and environmental monitoring — combining engineering principles with a consultative approach to deliver reliable solutions for projects of all sizes.

From construction site dewatering to long-term groundwater management, WJ Canada's expertise reflects a deep commitment to understanding and protecting water resources — values that align closely with The Groundwater Project's mission.

We are deeply grateful to WJ Canada for believing in our work and helping us keep building a global community of groundwater learners.

Thank you, WJ Canada! 🙌

🌐 Learn more about WJ Canada: wjcanada.com

🎬 Watch their video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji3jaV-FOp8&time_continue=0&source_ve_path=MjE0Mjgz&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwjcanada.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwjcanada.com

How do we teach students about a resource they cannot see? 💧🌍 Groundwater makes up 99% of Earth's liquid fresh water. It...
08/19/2026

How do we teach students about a resource they cannot see? 💧

🌍 Groundwater makes up 99% of Earth's liquid fresh water. It feeds rivers, sustains wetlands, and provides drinking water to billions. But because it's underground, it's hard to visualize — and even harder to teach.

The Groundwater Project has a solution: a free Introductory Collection of books and interactive tools that make groundwater science accessible to everyone.

🌟 New Featured Tool: An Interactive Physical Three-Dimensional Water Table Model Teaching Tool (2026)
This new publication gives instructors everything they need to build an inexpensive, classroom-scale 3D model using PVC tubes. Students get to act like real hydrogeologists — they measure water levels in model wells, calculate hydraulic heads, draw equipotential maps, and determine groundwater flow directions in both 2D and 3D.

The model is adaptable for:
• University hydrogeology courses and labs
• High school science modules
• Field camps
• Community outreach and continuing education
A full parts list with costs is included, so any educator can build it.

📚 The Introductory Collection also includes these free titles (among others):
• Groundwater in Our Water Cycle (Poeter et al., 2020) — A perfect starting point for understanding Earth's freshwater.
• Basic Hydrogeology (Uliana, 2025) — A complete undergraduate textbook.
• Conceptual and Visual Understanding of Hydraulic Head and Groundwater Flow (Cohen & Cherry, 2020) — Learn with minimal math, maximum visuals.
• Using Groundwater Head Maps (Toran, 2025) — Practical map-making for environmental consulting.
• A Glossary of Hydrogeology (Sharp, 2023) — Your go-to reference for terminology.

🔧 Don't miss the Interactive Education section of the website, where digital tools like the WTR – Water Table Recharge simulator let students explore groundwater dynamics online: Interactive Education | The Groundwater Project

🔗 Explore the full Introductory Collection: https://gw-project.org/books-category/introductory/

💬 Have you ever tried teaching or learning about groundwater? What made it click for you — a diagram, a model, a field trip? Share your story in the comments!

Did you know that microorganisms are responsible for an estimated 40% of internal corrosion across industrial sectors?Mi...
08/14/2026

Did you know that microorganisms are responsible for an estimated 40% of internal corrosion across industrial sectors?

Microbially Influenced Corrosion (MIC) is a hidden but costly problem in oil, gas, and mining. Unlike purely chemical corrosion, MIC is driven by living microbes that adapt to their environment and often go unnoticed until significant damage has occurred.

In a detailed webinar, Dora Taggart, President and CEO of Microbial Insights, Inc. — a proud sponsor of the Groundwater Project — explains how Molecular Biological Tools (MBTs) are helping industries detect, monitor, and manage MIC with precision. Tools like qPCR and next generation sequencing provide accurate, unbiased data about the microbial communities at work, enabling smarter, more targeted mitigation strategies.

The webinar is now available online. Whether you work in corrosion management, environmental science, or groundwater, it is well worth watching.
Watch it here: https://microbe.com/webinar/tackling-microbially-influenced-corrosion-mic-in-oil-gas-and-mining-leveraging-molecular-biological-tools-for-effective-management/

Read the full blog at https://gw-project.org/blog/

We had the privilege of interviewing the brilliant minds at KGS Group founding partner Bert Smith, Jason Mann, and Bonni...
08/07/2026

We had the privilege of interviewing the brilliant minds at KGS Group founding partner Bert Smith, Jason Mann, and Bonnie Hoffensetz, about their incredible work protecting groundwater during the 50km Winnipeg Floodway Expansion.

Beyond their groundbreaking engineering, KGS Group explained why they are proud founding sponsors of the Groundwater Project and active supporters of Lifewater Canada, helping to bring clean drinking water to communities in Africa and Haiti.

For KGS Group, hydrogeology is more than a business, it's about:
1️⃣ Honoring the legacy of great mentors (like Dr. John Cherry!)
2️⃣ Empowering the next generation of engineers with free, high-quality textbooks in 60+ languages.
3️⃣ Stepping out of the books, putting on the field boots, and finding real-world, sustainable solutions.

Curious to know how they used "reverse sand filters" to clean floodwater? Or why they chose to widen a channel instead of deepening it to protect a regional aquifer?

👉 Click the link to read the blog post https://gw-project.org/blog/
and watch the full interview on our YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/The Groundwater Project

🌍 Water education should be accessible to everyone! A goal of the project is to translate the Glossary of Hydrogeology i...
08/05/2026

🌍 Water education should be accessible to everyone!

A goal of the project is to translate the Glossary of Hydrogeology into the 11 most widely spoken languages in the world. Of these 2 are published (English and French), 3 are underway and we seek volunteer translations into:

🔸 Hindi 🔸 Arabic 🔸 Bengali 🔸 Indonesian 🔸 Russian 🔸 Urdu

Why this matters:

Over 2.5 billion people depend on groundwater for their daily drinking water. Yet the science that governs how we understand, manage, and protect that water has historically been locked behind a single language. When hydrogeology education exists only in English, it creates a knowledge divide that affects students, professionals, and entire communities who need this expertise the most.

The 11 most spoken languages globally reach billions of speakers across every continent. By translating this essential reference into these languages, we are not just converting words. We are building local capacity, empowering water professionals in their native languages, and ensuring that the science of groundwater reaches the people who live with it every day.

This is what we mean by Making Groundwater Understandable.

If you have a background in hydrogeology or a related field and fluency in any of these languages, your contribution could directly expand access to groundwater science for millions of people.

Become part of a global movement to make hydrogeology education open, free, and multilingual. 💧

Groundwater: The Invisible Resource That Sustains Billions — And the Knowledge Gap That Threatens ItThere is a global fr...
08/03/2026

Groundwater: The Invisible Resource That Sustains Billions — And the Knowledge Gap That Threatens It

There is a global freshwater crisis. And one of its root causes is not scarcity, it's lack of understanding.

Over 2 billion people depend on groundwater for drinking, irrigation, and sanitation. Yet outside the hydrogeology community, awareness of this vital resource remains critically low, and so does the human capacity to manage it sustainably.
That's why The Groundwater Project exists.

Founded in 2017 by Dr. John Cherry, recipient of the 2020 Stockholm Water Prize, The Groundwater Project is a Canadian-registered charitable nonprofit with a clear mission: to create and provide free, high-quality groundwater educational materials to the world.
Led by a small staff and over 1,000 volunteers, including authors, reviewers, editors, and translators from across the globe, the Project has already achieved remarkable reach:
• 📚 Over 3 million free book downloads
• 🌐 Readers in virtually every country
• 🗣️ Materials available in multiple languages
• 🎯 Free access for students, professionals, and decision-makers worldwide

But this work depends entirely on you.

The Groundwater Project operates solely through private donations. And there are three powerful ways to contribute:
🕐 Donate your time: Help close the groundwater knowledge gap by volunteering as a translator. If you speak a language other than English and care about groundwater, science, or education, we invite you to join us.
💰 Donate your money: Every contribution helps produce new books, expand translations, support the coordination team, and keep all materials free. Donations are tax-deductible in Canada and the USA. Donate here →
🔁 Donate your reach: Perhaps the simplest yet most powerful act: share this message. Share it with a colleague, a student, a policymaker, or your entire network. Each share is a seed that can grow into awareness, action, and change.

💧 Groundwater is invisible, but its importance is not. Knowledge is the first step to protection, and you can help spread it.

➡️ Learn more and get involved: gw-project.org
🔹

07/31/2026

Today, we are proud to spotlight Midwest GeoSciences Group, a Gold Sponsor of the Groundwater Project.

Midwest GeoSciences Group serves groundwater professionals with training courses, workshops, webinars, online educational experiences, and field tools.

Co-founders, Dan Kelleher and Tim Kemmis, quickly learned that professionals benefited from their courses because they provide meaningful solutions to common technical problems. They listened and learned from participants and today they collaborate with experts who teach a spectrum of topics related to the environmental and engineering industry. Plus, they developed field tools to help field staff think on their feet as the drilling and sampling program progresses.

Field tools include:
FIELD GUIDE FOR SOIL AND STRATIGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
FIELD GUIDE FOR ROCK CORE LOGGING AND FRACTURE ANALYSIS
FIELD GUIDE FOR SLUG TESTING AND DATA ANALYSIS
USDA SOIL TEXTURING FIELD FLOW CHART
GLACIAL SEDIMENTS POSTER CHART
SOIL CLASSIFICATION EXAM KIT
USCS CALIBRATED BASELINE SOIL KIT
USDA CALIBRATED SOIL KIT
SOLID H(o) SLUGS
PNEUMATIC Hi-K SLUG ASSEMBLY
And some fun stuff too.

Midwest GeoSciences Group courses and webinars are designed as purely educational and non-commercialized. They are motivated by serving professionals with hope that our collaborative efforts help all of us become successful professionals who strive to always improve our hydrogeologic talents while achieving effective global stewardship.

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