• Groundwater is the water found underground

in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand and rock.

It is stored in and moves slowly through
geologic formations of soil, sand and rocks
called aquifers.
• The area where water fills the aquifer is called
the saturated zone (or saturation zone). The top
of this zone is called the water table. The water
table may be located only a foot below the
ground’s surface or it can sit hundreds of feet
down.
•
• This mass of water is in motion. Water is
constantly added to the system by recharge
from precipitation, and water is constantly
leaving the system as discharge to surface
water and as evapotranspiration. Each ground-
water system is unique in that the source and
amount of water flowing through the system is
dependent upon external factors such as rate of
precipitation, location of streams and other
surface-water bodies, and rate of
evapotranspiration. The one common factor for
all ground-water systems, however, is that the
total amount of water entering, leaving, and
being stored in the system must be conserved.
An accounting of all the inflows, outflows, and
changes in storage is called a water budget.
GROUNDWATER DEVELOPMENT
Groundwater development is designed to satisfy
a certain demand for water or to assess the
groundwater resources of a watershed.

4 STAGES OF GROUNDWATER DEVELOPMENT

1. Surveying
2. Construction of abstraction systems
3. Design, construction, operation and optimization of
monitoring networks
4. Mathematical modeling
1. Surveying is the initial stage of any groundwater
exploitation system and primarily deals with the
identification of the perspective zones.

2. Construction of Abstraction Systems where

aquifer potential and water quality allows
exploitation is usually the second stage. Wells,
trenches and springs are then adequately built or
adapted.
3. Design, construction, operation and
optimization of monitoring networks is the final
stage of a groundwater development program but it
does not necessarily or exclusively have to follow
the preceding phase.

4. Mathematical modeling is required to manage

groundwater resources. Therefore the construction
of a mathematical model is commonly a phase of
groundwater development linked with the design,
operation and optimization of the monitoring
network.
• Human activities, such as ground-water
withdrawals and irrigation, change the natural
flow patterns, and these changes must be
accounted for in the calculation of the water
budget. Because any water that is used must
come from somewhere, human activities affect
the amount and rate of movement of water in
the system, entering the system, and leaving
the system.
 Uses of Groundwater

• Groundwater is used for drinking by about 50 percent of the people in the

country.
• Based on the water rights granted by the National Water Resources Board
(NWRB) since 2002, 49 percent of groundwater is consumed by the domestic
sector, and the remaining shared by agriculture (32 percent), industry (15
percent), and other sectors (4 percent).
• About 60 percent of the groundwater extraction is without water-right permits,
resulting in indiscriminate withdrawal.
• A high percentage (86 percent) of piped-water supply systems uses
groundwater as a source.
Wells and Boreholes
 Well is an excavation or structure
created in the ground by digging,
driving, or drilling to access liquid
resources, usually water. The
oldest and most common kind of
well is a water well, to access
groundwater in underground
aquifers. The well water is drawn
up by a pump, or using containers,
such as buckets, that are raised
mechanically or by hand.
Artesian well
• a well in which water is under pressure
• It is important to prevent
wastewater and human or animal
waste being deposited anywhere
near the well, as it could penetrate
the soil and potentially pollute the
water table. If the well is used for
drinking water and to water
livestock, the watering place for the
livestock must be well away from
the well.