The University of Surrey has won the Queen’s Award for Further and Higher Education for a range of work on the safe supply of water. Cited in the announcement of the prize was the work of the School of Law’s Centre on Trans-boundary Aquifers Governance (ScTAG) – the world’s first and only centre devoted entirely to the legal and policy aspects of trans-boundary aquifer management.

97 per cent of the world’s available fresh water is stored deep underground, in geological formations called aquifers. These aquifers often cross country boundaries,  yet only a few benefit from any kind of formal arrangement as to their use. Questions about the ownership and management of such a vital resource are now being taken seriously at the highest levels: the law of transboundary aquifers has been tabled for discussion at next year’s meeting of the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The University’s School of Law is contributing to these discussions through its work into the sustainable management of the Guarani Aquifer system, a vast groundwater resource underlying Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.