Abstract:
Groundwater development provides assured water supply
for agricultural, municipal, and industrial activities.
The agricultural groundwater development not only
augments the canal water supply, but also facilitates
timely irrigation at critical times. However, several aquifers
worldwide contain fresh usable groundwater only
in a not-so-thick layer toward the top. This freshwater
layer is underlain by a relatively thick layer of unusable
saline water. Such Fresh–Saline aquifers (termed henceforth
as F–S aquifers) occurring invariably in coastal
regions are quite common in inland aquifers also.
In coastal regions, groundwater salinity is mostly of
marine origin such as salinity originating from marine
transgressions, seawater intrusion, incidental flooding
by seawater, and groundwater enriched in salts by seawater
sprays.
