Declining groundwater level and aquifer dewatering in Dhaka metropolitan area, Bangladesh: causes and quantification

Hoque, M. A.; Hoque, Mohammed Moshiul; Ahmed, Kazi Matin

doi:10.1007/s10040-007-0226-5

Cited by 188 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Increasing populations and their increasing demand for water have led to increasing abstraction by such cities (Falkenmark and Widstrand 1992;Foster et al 2011;Lundqvist et al 2003;McDonald et al 2011). As a consequence, over-exploitation of associated aquifers is common, leading to declining water levels and productivity, land subsidence, and a deterioration in water quality (Galloway and Burbey 2011;Hoque et al 2007;Hosono et al 2011;Kagabu et al 2011;McDonald et al 2011;Morris et al 2003). Development continues despite recent discoveries of widespread pollution by arsenic (As) in the shallow aquifers of such deltas, particularly in SE Asia (Ravenscroft et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Tracing recharge to aquifers beneath an Asian megacity with Cl/Br and stable isotopes: the example of Dhaka, Bangladesh

et al. 2014

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Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is home to a population of 15 million people, whose water supply is 85% drawn from groundwater in aquifers that underlie the city. Values of Cl/Br >500 are common in groundwater beneath western Dhaka in areas <3 km from the river, and in rivers and sewers around and within the city. The study shows that groundwater beneath western Dhaka is strongly influenced by infiltration of effluent from leaking sewers and unsewered sanitation, and by river-bank infiltration from the TuragBuriganga river system which bounds the western limit of the city. River-bank infiltration from other rivers around Dhaka is minor. Values of Cl/Br and Cl concentrations reveal that 23 % of wells sampled in Dhaka are influenced by saline connate water in amounts up to 1%. This residual natural salinity compromises the use of electrical conductivity of groundwater as a method for defining pathways of recharge by contaminated surface waters. Concentrations of As, B, Ba, Cd, Cu, F, Ni, NO 3 , Pb, Sb, Se and U in groundwater samples are less than WHO health-based guideline values for drinking water.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Tracing recharge to aquifers beneath an Asian megacity with Cl/Br and stable isotopes: the example of Dhaka, Bangladesh

et al. 2014

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“…Van Loon et al (2016) showed that humans are an important factor in the causes of droughts and the depletion of reservoirs. The depletion of reservoirs is mainly a result of groundwater pumping for drinking-water supply (Willis and Garrod 1998), irrigation (Amelung et al 1999;Foster et al 2004;Konikow and Kendy 2005;Hoque et al 2007;Qureshi et al 2010;Wada et al 2012) and industrial use (Hayashi et al 2009). Globally, groundwater withdrawal amounts to 750-800 km 3 year −1 and exceeds annual recharge in many places of the world (Shah et al 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying groundwater recharge connections in the Moscow (USA) sub-basin using isotopic tracers and a soil moisture routing model

et al. 2016

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Globally, aquifers are suffering from large abstractions resulting in groundwater level declines. These declines can be caused by excessive abstraction for drinking water, irrigation purposes or industrial use. Basaltic aquifers also face these conflicts. A large flood basalt area (1.1 × 10 5 km 2 ) can be found in the Northwest of the USA. This Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) consists of a thick series of basalt flows of Miocene age. The two major hydrogeological units (Wanapum and Grand Ronde formations) are widely used for water abstraction. The mean decline over recent decades has been 0.6 m year −1. At present day, abstraction wells are drying up, and base flow of rivers is reduced. At the eastern part of CRBG, the Moscow sub-basin on the Idaho/ Washington State border can be found. Although a thick poorly permeable clay layer exists on top of the basalt aquifer, groundwater level dynamics suggest that groundwater recharge occurs at certain locations. A set of wells and springs has been monitored bi-weekly for 9 months for δ 18 O and δ 2 H. Large isotopic fluctuations and d-excess values close to the meteoric water line in some wells are indicating that recharge occurs at the granite/basalt interface through lateral flow paths in and below the clay. A soil moisture routing (SMR) model showed that most recharge occurs on the granitic mountains. The basaltic aquifer receives recharge from these sedimentary zones around the granite/basalt interface. The identification of these types of areas is of major importance for future managed-aquifer recharge solutions to solve problems of groundwater depletion.

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“…In some areas of the world groundwater levels of major aquifers are rapidly declining as an effect of unsustainable pumping and insufficient recharge. This is for instance the case in West Java, Indonesia; Dhaka, Bangladesh; and Beijing, China (Braadbaart and Braadbaart, 1997;Hoque et al, 2007;Zhou et al, 2012). Large-scale hydrological models have become increasingly popular in assisting water resources management of large aquifer systems (Casper and Vohland, 2008;Goderniaux et al, 2009;Branger et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated hydrological modeling of the North China Plain and implications for sustainable water management

Qin

Cao

Kristensen³

et al. 2013

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Groundwater overdraft has caused fast water level decline in the North China Plain (NCP) since the 1980s. Although many hydrological models have been developed for the NCP in the past few decades, most of them deal only with the groundwater component or only at local scales. In the present study, a coupled surface water-groundwater model using the MIKE SHE code has been developed for the entire alluvial plain of the NCP. All the major processes in the land phase of the hydrological cycle are considered in the integrated modeling approach. The most important parameters of the model are first identified by a sensitivity analysis process and then calibrated for the period 2000-2005. The calibrated model is validated for the period 2006-2008 against daily observations of groundwater heads. The simulation results compare well with the observations where acceptable values of root mean square error (RMSE) (most values lie below 4 m) and correlation coefficient (R) (0.36-0.97) are obtained. The simulated evapotranspiration (ET) is then compared with the remote sensing (RS)-based ET data to further validate the model simulation. The comparison result with a R 2 value of 0.93 between the monthly averaged values of simulated actual evapotranspiration (AET) and RS AET for the entire NCP shows a good performance of the model. The water balance results indicate that more than 70 % of water leaving the flow system is attributed to the ET component, of which about 0.25 % is taken from the saturated zone (SZ); about 29 % comes from pumping, including irrigation pumping and non-irrigation pumping (net pumping). Sustainable water management analysis of the NCP is conducted using the simulation results obtained from the integrated model. An effective approach to improve water use efficiency in the NCP is by reducing the actual ET, e.g. by introducing watersaving technologies and changes in cropping.

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Declining groundwater level and aquifer dewatering in Dhaka metropolitan area, Bangladesh: causes and quantification

Cited by 188 publications

References 4 publications

Tracing recharge to aquifers beneath an Asian megacity with Cl/Br and stable isotopes: the example of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Tracing recharge to aquifers beneath an Asian megacity with Cl/Br and stable isotopes: the example of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Identifying groundwater recharge connections in the Moscow (USA) sub-basin using isotopic tracers and a soil moisture routing model

Integrated hydrological modeling of the North China Plain and implications for sustainable water management

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