Groundwater Management: An Example of a Project Related to Rehabilitation of the Southern Coastal Aquifer, as Part of the National Water System in Israel

The southern part of the Coastal Aquifer of Israel (Fig. 1) serves as a major component of storage in the National System and as a water source for local consumers.The aquifer is threatened by high overexploitation, by salination processes resulted by overpumping, by agricultural management, by industrial and other human activities as well as by underground intrusion of saline water from its eastern boundary and by seawater intrusion from the west. A holistic approach was proposed for the reclamation of the saline water based on a line of brackish water wells (The Eastern Interceptor wells) and desalination plants. The purpose of this system is to prevent further intrusion of saline water into the main freshwater storage zone and to add the desalination product water to the local supply system.