To What Extent Can Groundwater Uses Affect Long Term Sustainable Exploitation Schemes? Case Study of the Bouhefna-Haffouz Aquifer System (Central Tunisia)

In the previous fifty years, there has been an astounding boom in agricultural groundwater use, improving livelihoods and food security (Giordano in Hydrogeol J 14(3): 310–318, 2006). Nevertheless, these remarkable improvements were not possible without a price to pay: agricultural groundwater use stands as a major threat to both quantity and quality of aquifers. This is particularly emblematic in semi-arid and arid regions where groundwater has always been an attractive solution for agriculture (Leduc et al. in Hydrogeol J 25(6): 1529–1547 2017). As a matter of fact, regions where agriculture strongly depend on groundwater uses such as the Mediterranean regions and Latin American countries are the most affected by aquifer overexploitation.