Managing Water Resources for Large Cities and Towns (HABITAT, 1996, 398 p.

)
III. CASE STUDIES
Community Participation: A Means for Water Conservation in Greater Cairo
Cairo Wastewater: Problems and Solutions
Water Resources, Water Supply and Sanitation: The Moroccan Experience
Private Company and State Partnership in the Management of Water Supply and Sewage Services: The Case of SODECI in
Côte d'Ivoire
Delayed Implementation of Master Plans and their Effects on Urban Water Supplies in Developing Countries: The Accra-Tema
Metropolitan Area Water Supplies Experience
Lagos Water Supply Management - Initiatives for Improvement of Financial Management and Service Level
Integrated Management of Water Supply in Zambian Cities: The Evasive Challenge in Kabwe Town
Water for All in the Cities: The Challenge for South Africa's Reconstruction and Development Programme
Policy, Including Financial Policy, for the Provision of Water Supply and Sanitation Services to the Urban Poor in Post-Apartheid
South Africa
Provision of Water Supply to Communities in the Durban Metropolitan Area, South Africa.
Consideration of Water and Environmental Problems of Istanbul City and Modern Innovative Solutions
Water Supply and Sanitation Management in Teheran, Iran
Water Supply to the Metropolitan Region of Central Israel
Organisational Re-engineering for Capacity Development: A Case Study of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and
Sewerage Board, India.
Cleaning of the River Ganga: Planning Methodology and Progressive Implementation
Water Allocation to States and to Sectors: The Yamuna and the Delhi Urban Area
Demand-side Management in Bangkok
The Status, Problems and Counter-Measures of Urban Water Supply and use in the People's Republic of China
Developing and Evaluating Multiple Alternatives for Managing Water Resources: Beijing Shi and North China
Principles and Methods of Planning for Urban Water Supply and Water Allocation
Situation and Prospect of Water Resources in Beijing
The Need for a Water Demand Management Programme in Beijing
Water Quality Safeguard for Sustainable Development of Shanghai
The Strategy and Development of Water conservation in Shanghai
Financing Community Water Supply: Loans, Guarantee Funds and Supporting Institutions
Sustainable Water Management in California: Three Trends Toward Success
Management of Water Resources for Mexico City
The Metropolitan Sanitary Company, Santiago, Chile: Results of a Shared Effort
The Privatization of Water and Sanitation Services in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina
The River Rhine: Lifeline of Large Cities in the Basin
The Problems of the Drinking Water Supply of Moscow City and the Trends of their Solution
Groundwater Resources Beneath Rapidly Urbanizing Cities - Implications and Priorities for Water Supply Management

Groundwater Resources Beneath Rapidly Urbanizing Cities - Implications and Priorities for Water Supply Management

S.S.D. Foster, A.R. LAWRENCE & B.L. Morris, British Geological Survey (Groundwater & Geotechnical Surveys Division), Nottingham &
Wallingford, UK

Abstract

Urban population growth is occurring on an unprecedented scale, such that close to half of the 80 % of the world's population who live in developing
countries will be urban dwellers by the year 2000. Many of the cities are sited on unconfined or semi-confined alluvial aquifers which possess abundant,
but fragile, groundwater resources. It has become increasingly evident that inadequately-controlled groundwater exploitation and indiscriminate liquid
effluent and solid waste disposal to the ground widely result in significant groundwater degradation, both within the urban area itself and downstream. This
degradation is a contributory cause of escalating water-supply cost, increasing water resource scarcity and growing health hazard. The importance of urban
and periurban groundwater resources to the successful development of many cities is such that proactive, rather than passive, management of groundwater
resources, based on systematically-identified priorities and simple pragmatic criteria is needed to avoid premature loss of major investment in groundwater
development.

Impacts of Urbanization on Groundwater

Changes in the Hydrological Cycle as a result of urbanization process

The three key services of water-supply, sanitation and drainage are crucial to the urbanization process. Substantial differences in development sequence
exist between higher-income areas, where the process is normally planned in advance, and lower-income areas, where informal settlements are
progressively consolidated into urban areas and may lack adequate provision of one or more of these three services. However, common factors include
impermeabilization of a significant proportion of the land surface and major importation of water from outside the urban limits. Sanitation and drainage
arrangements also have a fundamental effect on the urban hydrological cycle. They generally evolve with time and vary with differing patterns of urban
development, but mains sewerage construction generally lags considerably behind population growth and water-supply provision.

Urbanization causes radical changes in the frequency and rate of subsurface infiltration with a general tendency to significantly increase volume and for
quality to deteriorate substantially [1]. These changes cannot be measured directly, and are thus difficult to quantify, but in turn influence groundwater
levels and flow regimes in underlying aquifers. Subsequently groundwater quality degradation occurs, both within the urban area itself and in downstream
alluvial aquifers.

Groundwater Quality Deterioration within the City

Some urbanization processes cause radical changes in the quality of subsurface infiltration. This is widely the cause of marked, but essentially diffuse,
pollution of groundwater by nitrogen compounds, increasing salinity and elevated dissolved organic carbon concentrations. The oxidation of the high
organic load can lead to enhanced mobilisation of iron and/or manganese as reducing conditions develop. In very shallow aquifers, especially those where
flow through fissures is important, contamination by faecal pathogens can occur. The intensity of impact varies widely with the pollution vulnerability of
underlying aquifers and with the type and stage of urban development. In alluvial formations the uppermost unit is vulnerable to pollution from human
activities at the land surface, given its shallow water-table, and this may have an effect on deeper (less vulnerable) aquifers, the pumping of which provides
the hydraulic head differences which can induce downward leakage of pollutants across intervening lower permeability layers.

Rapid urbanization and industrialization with indiscriminate use of the ground for liquid effluent and solid waste disposal present a complex array of
activities which have the potential to pollute groundwater. In many districts without mains sewerage, a heavy subsoil contaminant load originates from in-
situ sanitation and the disposal of sullage waters increases the risk of shallow groundwater contamination, because of the presence of various household
chemicals. In addition to elevated nitrogen concentrations, increased concentrations of chloride (partly from excreta), sulphate, and bicarbonate (from
oxidation of organic matter) are frequently observed. A further, increasingly-frequent, cause of shallow groundwater contamination in residential areas of
developing cities is hydrocarbon fuel leakage from underground storage tanks at service stations.

In many rapidly-developing cities, burgeoning industries (such as textile mills, tanneries, metal processing, vehicle maintenance, laundry and dry cleaning
establishments, printing and photoprocessing, etc) are located in extensive fringe urban areas which lack mains sewerage. Most of these industries generate
liquid effluents, such as spent lubricants, solvents and disinfectants, which are often discharged directly to the ground and whose slow rates of degradation
can represent a long-term threat to groundwater quality.

Santa Cruz, Bolivia, is a low-rise, relatively low-density, fast-growing city, whose municipal water-supply is derived entirely from wellfields within the
city limits, extracting from a semi-unconfined, outwash-plain, alluvial aquifer. The city has a relatively high coverage of mains water-supply, but until
recently only the older central area had mains sewerage, and most domestic/industrial effluents and stormwater drainage were disposed to the ground. The
uppermost aquifer unit thus shows substantial deterioration in groundwater quality (Fig 1) down to depths of about 40 m [2]. Groundwater abstraction
from the deep alluvial aquifer has induced downward movement from the shallow horizons and a component of contaminated water is now observed at
depths in places approaching 90 m. The heavy development of the shallow aquifer for private water-supplies, however, effectively provides a degree of
protection for deeper municipal wellfields by intercepting, abstracting and recycling part of the polluted water, which is fortuitously a good management
practice provided that none of the supplies provided by these wells are destined for sensitive use.

In some cities located on low-lying coastal alluvium, direct disposal of wastewater to the ground via on-site sanitation is not possible and effluents are
discharged into rivers and canals, which can become influent to aquifers as a result of groundwater abstraction. Hat Yai, Thailand, is an example of this
condition [2]. Most of its limited mains water-supply is imported from external surface water sources, but as private sector abstraction is also important,
about 60% of the overall supply is provided from local groundwater resources. The disposal of domestic and industrial effluents to the ground by on-site
sanitation systems is not always possible because of the shallow water-table and such wastes are discharged into rivers and canals. The heavy groundwater
abstraction results in induced leakage to the shallow aquifer. This is detectable most readily by high ammonium concentrations (Fig 2), reflecting the low
redox potential of the aquifer system. With increasingly heavy groundwater development it is believed that induced canal seepage is now a major
component of groundwater recharge in the central part of the city.

FIGURE 1: Shallow groundwater pollution caused by rapid urbanization with induced downward leakage to deep aquifers in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Downstream Riparian Effects

Although the provision of mains sewerage lags considerably behind population growth and water-supply provision, sewage effluent (termed here
wastewater) is generated in large volumes by the majority of, but not all, rapidly-developing cities. This wastewater is normally discharged to surface
watercourses after minimal treatment from where, especially in more arid climates, it is used on an uncontrolled basis for agricultural irrigation in
downstream riparian areas. Such areas may be underlain by important alluvial aquifers [3] and examples of this situation include many cities in northern
and central Mexico and northeastern China.

The city of Leon in Guanajuato State, Mexico is situated in a wide intermontane semi-arid valley with a complex partially-confined aquifer, heavily
exploited for municipal water-supply by several wellfields. It is among the fastest growing cities in Mexico, and one of the most prominent leather
processing and shoe manufacturing centres in Latin America. Leon is extensively, although not comprehensively sewered, and produces some 250 Ml/d of
sewage effluent, which is used for agricultural irrigation of an area immediately southwest of the city. The continuous infiltration resulting from low-
efficiency agricultural irrigation with wastewater is sufficient to cause the formation of a major groundwater mound above the piezometric surface of the
regional aquifer, which is depressed elsewhere some 40-90 mbgl as a result of heavy pumping.
 FIGURE 2: Impact of urban development on the Hat Yai, Thailand, coastal alluvial aquifer

The impact on groundwater quality is marked [4], with deep municipal boreholes in the wastewater irrigation area being threatened by increasing salinity
due to the downward movement of a chloride front (Fig 3). Wastewater in the main sewerage collectors from industrial areas contains 500-600 mg/l
chloride, 50-70 mg/l nitrogen, 15-40 mg/l chromium and a very heavy organic load, but relatively little nitrogen is oxidised and leached to shallow
groundwater (< 12 mg as nitrate) and almost all chromium (which is not deposited in streambed or irrigation reservoir sediments) accumulates in the soil
with concentrations in the top 30 cm commonly in the range 50-250 mg/kg.

Many of the large number of cities of the alluvial plains of northeastern China are highly dependent on groundwater for their municipal water-supply, and
downstream riparian wellfields are very commonly developed. The city of Shenyang obtains almost 1000 Ml/d (70% of its total supply) from downstream
riparian wellfields along the Hunhe River. Various boreholes are said to have experienced quality degradation due to rising ammonium or nitrate
concentrations and traces of soluble oils and phenols. This is believed to be a consequence of infiltration of river water heavily polluted by urban
wastewater, either directly through induced streambed recharge or indirectly by heavy rates of irrigation of agricultural land from river water.

FIGURE 3: Impact of wastewater irrigation downstream of Leon (Guanajuato), Mexico (vertical exaggeration × 30 approx)

Consequences of Uncontrolled Aquifer Exploitation

Groundwater quality issues cannot be divorced from those of resource development. The most common quality impact of inadequately-controlled aquifer
exploitation, particularly in coastal situations, is the intrusion of saline water. For thin alluvial aquifers this takes the classical wedge-shaped form, but in
thicker multiaquifer sequences salinity inversions often occur with intrusion of modern seawater (or retention of palaeo-saline water), due to pumping of
near-surface aquifer horizons, and with fresh groundwater below.

Contamination of deeper (semi-confined) aquifers, where they underlie a shallow poor-quality phreatic aquifer affected by anthropogenic pollution and/or
saline intrusion, is a frequent consequence of uncontrolled exploitation. This occurs as a result of inadequate well construction (leading to direct leakage
down wells which accidentally link one or more aquifers and act as vertical conduits) and/or pump-induced vertical leakage. Such a mechanism can allow
penetration of more mobile and persistent contaminant species (Fig 4). Evidence has been accumulating since the 1980s of widespread drawdown of the
piezometric surface by 20-50 m or more in various Asian megacities, as a result of heavy exploitation of alluvial aquifers, and both of the aforementioned
side-effects are quite widely observed.

FIGURE 4: Evolution of groundwater quality problems in a typical coastal alluvial aquifer system of the humid tropics following rapid urbanization

A recent Asian Development Bank technical cooperation programme on water resources management in megacities included case histories for 4 Asian
cities in the humid tropics, each possessing major alluvial groundwater resources. The results of these studies have been reviewed, and amplified by further
direct data collection and other references [5][6][7][8], with the aim of drawing generic conclusions [9]. Among the cities surveyed, groundwater remains
the major component of municipal (public) water-supply only in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Table 2), having been substituted in other cases by long-distance
imports of surface water. This was often due to quality deterioration through saline intrusion and/or anthropogenic pollution, but sometimes the result of
reduction of individual borehole yields, from falling water-levels or poor well construction and maintenance.

The situation is not as simple as it might at first appear, however, since in the other cases (Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila) resultant shortage and increasing
cost of water-supplies imported from outside the city led to a major growth in private well drilling (Table 2). As a result, the overall exploitation of
groundwater increased, despite attempts to initiate control, as fears increased about further saline intrusion and/or land subsidence. There is little point in
controlling municipal abstraction if private groundwater exploitation is not similarly managed. In effect, what has occurred in Bangkok, Jakarta and
Manila is the replacement of a moderate number of municipal groundwater supplies, which were at least capable of being systematically controlled,
monitored, protected and treated, by a very large number of shallower, largely uncontrolled, unmonitored and untreated sources.

Tapping groundwater at location of demand makes sense for many industrial users and for amenity irrigation, since both uses may demand large volumes
and unit supply cost is important. However, it is questionable in densely-populated areas, both on economic and on public health grounds, for domestic
supplies and for sensitive

TABLE 2: Recent water-supply statistics for selected Asian megacities located on coastal alluvial aquifers

POPLN (M) POPLN DENSITY (cap/ha) WATER-SUPPLY (Ml/d) GROUNDWATER ABSTRACTION (Ml/d)

CITY public total public (propn) private

(propn served)

Bangkok (Thailand) 5.9 40 3220 (70%) 3840 190 (6%) 620

Dhaka (Bangladesh) 6.1 380 670 (60%) 900 670 (100%) 230

Jakarta (Indonesia) 8.2 130 1200 (45%) 1820 60 (5%) 620

Manila (Philippines) 8.3 130 2280 (75%) 3120 90 (3%) 840

Industries (such as food and beverage preparation). An added concern is illegal connection of private wells to the mains water-supply by users in order to
even out fluctuations in supply, usually without measures to prevent "back syphoning" at times of reduced mains pressure. Contamination of "down-
system" supplies can result.

Implications for Groundwater Management

Rapid urbanization has been shown to have a profound effect on groundwater recharge, flow and quality. The scale of implications for the security and
safety of developing city water-supplies is considerable. The paper has selected examples from tropical alluvial aquifers in view of their importance
internationally, and brevity prevented presentation of a wider spectrum of hydrogeological conditions.

While, in many instances, institutional and regulatory arrangements will need strengthening to implement management strategies, such strategies must also
be soundly based on hydrogeological criteria if they are to achieve more sustainable exploitation of groundwater resources. Some ways in which
hydrogeological considerations can be meshed into a groundwater resource management programmes are suggested:
Aquifer Pollution Control

Given typical socioeconomic and hydrogeological conditions, it is not realistic to attempt to protect shallow alluvial aquifers from some quality
deterioration during the urbanization process. However, it will be prudent to control those activities which most threaten groundwater quality overall,
especially that in deeper (less vulnerable) aquifers.

This will be best achieved through the following strategy:

(a) undertake a rapid survey of subsoil contaminant loading [10] to identify those activities likely to pose the greatest threat to groundwater
through mode or intensity of discharge and presence of persistent and/or toxic chemicals;

(b) establish the degree of existing deterioration of the uppermost aquifer unit from anthropogenic pollution by a sampling survey of
representative shallow wells, with analysis for appropriate indicator determinants;

(c) introduce selective controls on subsoil contaminant loading (where demonstrated necessary) through extension of mains sewerage and
treatment, incentives for improved handling/control of industrial chemical effluents, or more efficient use and reuse of process
chemicals/effluent.

Resource Management Criteria

The use of urban groundwater also needs to be directed and rationalized, taking account of the quality distributions and trends identified. A better balance
needs to be achieved between shallow and deep groundwater abstraction, for example by directing non-sensitive water users towards exploitation of
groundwater of inferior quality so as to minimise the downward migration of high concentrations of anthropogenic contaminants. As non-sensitive uses are
generally of lower economic cost, there may be hidden financial advantages in such regulation, as the extraction will normally be from shallower aquifers
usually with lower associated pumping costs. Municipal groundwater development strategies need to be harmonized with private groundwater use patterns
and with wastewater disposal and/or reuse strategies.

The hydrogeological complexity of tropical alluvial aquifers means that groundwater recharge evaluation is always subject to considerable uncertainty, and
rarely forms a sound basis for resource management. Other simple criteria are needed and combinations of the following approaches, appropriately
adapted to local hydrogeological conditions, are likely to prove more useful:

(a) determine the extent of vertical layering of the aquifer system, and associated hydraulic head and groundwater quality variations, by
selective field data collection,

(b) appraise the susceptibility of the system to saline intrusion and/or land subsidence following major depression of the piezometric surface,
in a qualitative sense on simple geohydrological criteria [II],

(c) use target piezometric levels as the resource management criterion, since this is more likely to maximise groundwater production while
minimising irreversible side-effects which threaten sustainability,

(d) spread public water-supply abstraction geographically to avoid large cones of piezometric depression in the deeper semi-confined aquifers,
especially in areas susceptible to saline intrusion and/or land subsidence,

(e) in situations where significant encroachment (or intrusion) of saline water has already occurred, avoid abandonment of pumping from
salinized wells and try to encourage continued abstraction at reduced rates for appropriate uses to reduce landward hydraulic gradients; assess
risk of upcoming using hydrogeological techniques and if necessary reduce unit abstraction.

(f) avoid generation of large downward hydraulic gradients by balancing the abstraction between shallow and deep aquifers, by encouraging
non-sensitive users (industrial process and cooling water, amenity irrigation, etc) to drill shallow wells and by reserving deeper aquifers for
potable supplies and sensitive industrial uses; this may be achieved by direct licensing controls or differential abstraction tariffs.

Acknowledgements

This paper is published by permission of the Director of the British Geological Survey (BGS). Its aim is to highlight key messages for the sustainable
development of groundwater resources arising from recent surveys of a number of developing cities, which were funded by the (British) Overseas
Development Administration, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme and the European Community. The major
contribution of numerous national groundwater professionals and certain BGS colleagues, especially John Chilton, to these surveys is fully appreciated and
gratefully acknowledged.

References

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3. Foster S S D, Gale I N & Hespanhol I (1994) Impacts of wastewater use and disposal on groundwater. BGS Report WD/94/55.

4. British Geological Survey, National Water Commission of Mexico, Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Municipal Water Authority of
Le1996. Effects of Wastewater Reuse on Urban Groundwater Resources of LeMexico. Final Report-Feb 1996. BGS Technical Report
WD/95/64 Keyworth.

5. Ahmed K M, Woobaidullah A S M & Hasan M A (1995) Hydrogeology of the Dupi Tila Aquifer of Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Acta Univ
Carolina Geol 39: 113-121.

6. Munasinghe M (1990) Managing water resources to avoid environmental degradation: policy analysis and application. World Bank Environ
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7. Ramnarong V & Buapeng S (1991) Mitigation of groundwater crisis and land subsidence in Bangkok. J Thai Geosci 2: 125-137.

8. Schmidt G, Soefner B & Soekardi P (1990) Possibilities for groundwater development for the city of Jakarta, Indonesia. IAHS Publn 198:
233-242.

9. Foster S S D & Lawrence A R (1996) Groundwater quality in Asia: an overview of trends and concerns. UN-ESCAP Water Res J: in press.

10. Foster S S D & Hirata R C A (1988/1991) Groundwater pollution risk assessment: a methodology using available data (also in Spanish &
Portuguese). WHO-PAHO-CEPIS Publication: 79 pp.
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