Groundwater

Environmental impacts

The competition for groundwater often leads to over-exploitation of the aquifer whereby its water level drops and the water resource gets out of the reach of the poor and remains available only to those who have enough capital to sink very deep wells.

When over-exploited, the discharge at the downstream end of the aquifer reduces considerably affecting negatively the downstream water users as well as the ecology. Further, serious land subsidence may occur.

In irrigation projects in (semi)arid regions where groundwater is used abundantly, the groundwater tends to get more salty over time due to the continuous evaporation by which the salt concentration increases slowly but steadily.

In industrial areas and in agricultural lands with ample use of fertilizers and biocides the groundwater can become seriously polluted owing of the infiltration and percolation of contaminated water.

Ideally, the water balance and quality of aquifers is carefully monitored and assessed, and the user rights are determined based on this assessment as well as on socio-political-legal conditions. The establishment of a groundwater flow model can be helpful in this respect.

Unfortunately, proper groundwater management is still in its infancy even in developed countries.