New Methods of Artificial Recharge of Aquifers: A Review
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Cite as:
Kavuri M, Boddu M and Annamdas V G M (2011) “New Methods of Artificial
Recharge of Aquifers: A Review” IPWE 2011, Proceedings of 4th International
Perspective on Water Resources & the Environment, January 4-6, 2011, National
University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. Poster on: Artificial Recharge of Aquifer,
No: 1j
New Methods of Artificial Recharge of Aquifers: A Review
Mahati Kavuri1, Manasa Boddu1 and Venu Gopal Madhav Annamdas2*
1
Civil Engineering Department, JB Institute of Engg & Tech., Jawaharlal Nehru
Technological University, Hyderabad, 500075, India
2
Department of Civil Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology & Science [BITS],
Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Jawaharnagar, Shamirpet, Hyderabad, 500078, India
*
Email: annamdas@ntu.edu.sg, Fax : (091) 040-66303998
ABSTRACT
The necessity of artificial recharge of aquifers is increasing day by day due to
excessive demand of water by the ever-growing population and also because of the
scarcity of good dam sites available for construction. Artificial recharge of aquifer is
the process of adding water to an aquifer through human effort. The main purpose of
artificial aquifer recharge is to store water for later use while improving upon the
quality of water. This paper will review the existing methods of artificial recharge of
aquifers such as infiltration basins and canals, water traps, cut waters, surface run off
drainage wells, and diversion of excess flow from irrigation canals etc with the help
of various case studies conducted in the recent past at various places.
Key words: recharge, human effort, aquifers, infiltrations, artificial
INTRODUCTION
The vital purpose of artificial aquifer is to preserve superfluous water to meet
the needs of the future generation. It is one of the man made efforts to add water to
the aquifers. Hundreds of techniques have been developed in the past few years for
the sufficient supply of water for the human use. Thus, the ground water has been
considerably amplified and the salinity of water has been declined, thus improving
the quantity and quality of water. The artificial recharge methods are proving to be
effectual in maintenance and replenishment of the aquifers [Fred 2006].
The recharge of ground water occurs both naturally and artificially. The
natural recharge occurs through the process of infiltration where the water percolates
from the surface to the bed of the aquifer. But due to rapid development and
stupendous growth of population in the recent past the areas for natural infiltration
1
have been lessening day by day, hence the scope for natural recharge of the ground
water is also declining. Thus anthropological methods have been implemented to
supplement the natural process of infiltration. A wide range of techniques are being
made use to recharge the ground water artificially. The selection of the technique
depends upon the hydrological frame work of that particular area. The various
methods can be broadly categorized as follows:
1. Direct Surface Techniques
2. Direct Sub surface technique
3. Combination surface-sub surface technique
4. Indirect techniques
Apart from the afore mentioned methods, some conservational structures such
as ground water dams, sub surface dykes ,etc are also utilized to arrest the sub surface
flow. Many other techniques are being followed to interconnect the various fractures
in the hard rocky areas to augment the ground water. The case studies of the existing
methods of artificial recharges in various nations have been discussed in this paper
[Asano 1985].
India being a country with wide variation in the geological and hydrological
conditions had to adopt various techniques of artificial recharge at various places
depending on their geography. Rapid agricultural development in the state of Gujarat,
has led to the deterioration of the ‘Mahesana alluvial’ aquifer, having a long history
of irrigation from shallow wells. This also led to an increase in the salinity of the
water in the aquifer. Hence artificial recharge was done through spreading method to
increase the water table and to steadily decrease the salinity [Kumar and Aiyagari
1997; O'Hare et al.1986; Dillon et al.2009]. Similarly in the UK, the infiltration rate
is bare minimum ie, less than 0.5 meters per year. This is mainly due to the chalk
deposits in the various areas in and around the Lincolnshire region. The accessibility
of the ground water becomes low due to the various outcrops in the same region.
Efforts are being made to pump this ground water into the rivers to make the water
more available in the needed areas. Thus an appropriate method of artificial recharge
of aquifer is being established to replenish the aquifer yield continuously.
CASE STUDY 1: MEHSANA AQUIFER, GUJRAT, INDIA
The most common method of extraction of the ground water in India is the
tube wells dug into the aquifer. Due to the increasing demand for the water these tube
wells were drilled deeper and deeper into the aquifers, reaching the deep seated
aquifers as well. This has lead to the overexploitation of these aquifers and thus
decreases in their yield. This heavy exploitation of the water sources, generally takes
place in the areas where the drawn water is utilized for irrigational purposes
[Abdulaziz 1991]. The ‘Mehsana alluvial’ aquifer in the western India is an excellent
example for such case of over exploitation of the aquifer for the sake of irrigation.
The earlier dug wells were substituted with tube wells for drawing more water. This
initially improved the yield from the aquifer, but resulted in a steady decline in the
piezometric levels of the aquifer. This also gave rise to the exceeding concern about
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the continuing fall in the water table [Sinha 2005; Bhattacharya 2010; CGWB 1994,
2000, 2004].
The Mehsana district extends from the North latitude 2402′17″ to 2405′17″ and
East longitudes 72045′00″ to 72047′13″ covering an area of 25.25 sq. km. A
collaborative research was conducted in this area under the name of “Augmenting
Groundwater Resources by Artificial Recharge”. The project consists of various
artificial recharge structures including three check dams (in Mumanvas, Bhanavas
and Samrapur villages), a pond in Nana Kothasana village, a percolation tank in
Nedardi village and two subsurface check dams in Samrapur village located in the
Satlasana taluka, of the Mahesana district as given in Table 1.
Table1. Capacity of Structures
(Courtesy: AGRAR Inception Report: Aravalli Case Study, Gujarat)
Direct approach of the artificial recharge is adopted by making use of the
spreading channels and percolation tanks and recharge from the losses of the canals.
Various experiments were conducted by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in
collaboration with UNDP and State Ground Water Agencies in order to artificially
recharge the ground water in and around the central Mehsana areas of Gujarat.
Ground water was intended to be restored in three ways, viz. injection wells,
spreading method, and recharge pit [CGWB 1994 ; Christopher et al.,2004]. In the
experiment conducted using the injection wells, the waters from the phreatic aquifer
below the Saraswati river were utilized. A quantity of 225 cubic meters per day was
injected continuously for 250 days, through pressure injection technique. At the end
of this recharge cycle, an average rise of 5 meters(m) was observed in the injection
well along with a rise of 0.6-1 m in the wells 150 m away from the injection well
(Figure 1). Since the source of water itself was an aquifer, the problems of silt and
clogging were minimized [Muralidharan and Athavale 1998; Sakthivadivel and
Gomathinayagam 2004]
3Figure 1. Injection wells for artificial recharge of the aquifer
Similarly another experiment was conducted by allowing the water to spread
in a spreading channel of 400 m length, 3.3 m width and a slope of 1 in 1. The water
was fed continuously for 46 days and an average recharge rate of 260 cubic meters
was estimated at an infiltration rate of 17 cm/day. A rise of 1.4 – 2 m was observed in
the areas located 15 m away from the spreading channel and a rise of 20 cm at a
distance of 200 m away from the channel [Rushton and Phadtare 1989; Sakthivadivel
2004]. Further, the feasibility of the shallow aquifers with the artificial recharge
techniques was studied with the help of a recharge pit of dimensions 1.7 x 1.7 x 0.75
m. With an infiltration rate of 0.5m/day, an average recharge of 17.3 cubic meters per
day was induced successively for 60 days, by avoiding losses due to evaporation. An
average rise of 4.13m was observed at a distance of 5m from the pit [Rushton and
Srivastava 1988; Malik et al., 2009; Moench Marcus 1992; Gupta and Deshpande,
2004; Goyal et al., 2009]. Thus the artificial recharge of the Mehsana alluvial aquifer
has developed the yield in the Mehsana district of Gujarat thus making the supply
sufficient enough to meet the various agricultural and domestic demands.
CASE STUDY2: ARTIFICIAL STORAGE RECOVERY, UNITED KINGDOM
The artificial storage and recovery (ASR) system in the UK has been
employed to serve the dual purpose of augmenting the ground water during the winter
season and then recovering this augmented water during the summer (Figures 2 and
3). The process involves injection of water into the aquifer at the times of high supply
and then recovering the water during low supply period. This is done by injecting the
potable water by boreholes. The success of the ASR depends on the mixing capacity
of the injected water and the native water and the rate of recovery of the injected
water.
4Figure 2. The concept of ASR
(Courtesy: http://www.groundwateruk.org/downloads/groundwater_resources.pdf)
The terrain of the UK varies in its nature from chalk in few areas to Permo-
Triassic sandstone in the other regions, hence these form the base for the major
aquifers in the UK the chalk outcrops extend up to 20,000 sq. km with a yield of 4000
million cubic meters of water in an unconfined aquifer present in the top 20 m alone
[Brown 2004; Pyne1995; Pyne 1998; Williams 2000]. The yield goes up considerably
if the yield of the confined aquifer is also included. Due to the high porosity of the
base rocks, all this water is not available for use. The Chalk and the overlying sands
are being recharged with treated river water since 1960’s, in the London basin.
5Figure3. The terrain of the United Kingdom
(Curtsey: http://www.groundwateruk.org/downloads/groundwater_resources.pdf)
For the assessment of the suitability of the ASR scheme, a trial had been
conducted in the Chalk of the southeast England. The Chalk aquifer in this region has
an artesian head of about 20m and is confined beneath a layer of tertiary sands. The
native ground water of this area is well within the norms for the potable water except
for the fluoride ion concentration, which is about 4 mg/l. The permeability of the
aquifer is attributed to the network of fractures with 1% porosity while the storage in
the aquifer is done by the matrix with a porosity of 30-40%. It was considered that the
porous matrix and the fractures would provide a good medium for the mixing of the
native and injected waters.The test was conducted as a series of injection and
abstraction cycles. The cycles had varied lengths except for the first one. In each
cycle the amount of water injected was greater than the amount of water abstracted.
The abstracted water was later analyzed. Eight such cycles were carried out in a span
of 18 months. During the whole process, 650 ml of water was injected and 190 ml
was abstracted. The results of the various cycles have been tabulated in Table 2
6[British Geological Survey 2004; Satchell and Wilkinsor 2001;Williams 2000]. Thus
consistent supply of fresh water is ensured in the U.K even in the period of low
supply and high demand.
Table 2.Information on the cycles
(Courtesy: http://iahs.info/redbooks/a262/iahs_262_0195.pdf)
CONCLUSION
Thus the paper gives an overview of the existing techniques in the artificial
recharge of aquifers. It can be now observed from the case studies mentioned in the
paper, that the artificial recharge aids in improving the natural yield and capacity of
the aquifers. This ensures a consistent and continuous supply of safe and fresh water,
even during the dry periods.
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Cite as:
Kavuri M, Boddu M and Annamdas V G M (2011) “New Methods of Artificial
Recharge of Aquifers: A Review” IPWE 2011, Proceedings of 4th International
Perspective on Water Resources & the Environment, January 4-6, 2011, National
University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. Poster on: Artificial Recharge of Aquifer,
No: 1j
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