On 2 December, partners within the seminal Project RESources in Coastal groundwater Under hydroclimatic Extremes (RESCUE), funded by Water 4 All and co-funded by the European Union, participated in a highly successful side-event co-organised with the OFF-SOURCE COST Action at the XIX World Water Congress in Marrakech, Morocco. Hosted by the International Water Research Association (IWRA) and the Ministry of Equipment and Water of the Kingdom of Morocco, under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, the XIX World Water Congress took place from 1 to 5 December 2025, under the theme “Water in a Changing World: Innovation and Adaptation”.
Above: Claudia Bertoni of the University of Trieste (UNITS) presenting RESCUE
The OFF-SOURCE COST Action session, titled “Tapping into Offshore Freshened Groundwater for a Water-Secure Future,” brought together an expert panel from the fields of hydrogeology, environmental law, social science and data science to discuss Offshore Freshened Groundwater (OFG) as an emerging frontier of coastal water security.
The event provided an ideal setting to introduce OFG to a broader international community, blending scientific dissemination with a forward-looking discussion on governance. The panel demonstrated how OFG research can support coastal water resilience, identify new opportunities and contribute to long-term water security strategies.
RESCUE was represented by Claudia Bertoni (University of Trieste (UNITS)), which leads the Project, and Emma Mazzotta (National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS), who contributed to an interdisciplinary panel alongside colleagues from OFF-SOURCE. Claudia Bertoni opened the session by introducing OFG as an emerging phenomenon and presented the latest scientific advances in subsurface imaging and modelling. The discussion then expanded to environmental considerations, potential extraction impacts, cost and feasibility questions, and the legal and governance challenges that will need to be addressed as research progresses. The session also emphasised the importance of international collaboration, bringing together interdisciplinary experts to advance knowledge and co-develop responsible pathways for future OFG management.
The event attracted a full room and an engaged international audience. The participants included groundwater modellers, environmental lawyers, policy advisors, early-career researchers, and representatives from the private sector. The Q&A session was particularly dynamic, with questions centred on OFG sustainability, environmental risks, data gaps, potential volumes, funding pathways for pilot studies, and comparisons between OFG and desalination in terms of cost and feasibility.
Above from left to right: Emma Mazzotta (OGS), Claudia Bertoni (UNITS) and Hiba Wazaz (OFF-SOURCE COST Action)
The three year-long RESCUE Project, which began in March 2024 and ends in 2027, aims to build knowledge on offshore and deep onshore low salinity aquifers in European coastal areas, to evaluate novel freshwater resources, and help secure a steady supply of water to both population and industry, in times of hydroclimatic extremes. In this context, RESCUE also aims to connect with other ‘sister’ projects, including the OFF-SOURCE COST Action, which kindly gave RESCUE partners the opportunity to appear in its session in Marrakech.
Led by UNITS and with a consortium that includes OGS, Ruden AS, University of Derby (UoD) and University of Malta (UM), RESCUE’s objective is to help establish the foundations for the evaluation of new resources for local and regional policy makers, while the global applicability of the outputs will allow upscaling to Europe-wide or other large areas worldwide, where water is needed.
