In partnership with 18 universities, centres and other organizations, UNESCO-IHP is collaborating on the FREEWAT project (http://www.freewat.eu/), a HORIZON 2020 project financed by the EU Commission. The project adopts an innovative participatory approach gathering technical staff and relevant stakeholders, including policy and decision-makers, to design scenarios for the proper application of conjunctive water policies [46].
FREEWAT’s main result is an open source and public domain GIS-integrated modelling environment (the FREEWAT platform) for the simulation of water quantity and quality in surface water and groundwater with an integrated water management and planning module. FREEWAT is a composite plugin for QGIS, designed as a modular ensemble of different tools, including for analysis, interpretation and visualization of hydrogeological and hydrochemical data and quality issues, for simulation of models related to the hydrological cycle and water resources management, or for performing model calibration
The consortium also organizes capacity-building workshops and seminars. So far, a total of 890 individuals had to be trained to use the platform within the EU, 60 in Switzerland, 100 in neighboring countries (Ukraine and Turkey) and another 80 in Africa (South Africa, Namibia and Botswana).
A new version of the FREEWAT plugin (v.1.0) has been available since 17 October  2017, and can be downloaded, along with a complete set of up-to-date User Manuals and Tutorials, through accessing the Software -> Download area page of the FREEWAT website.