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Project to recharge aquifers in Abu Dhabi

AL AIN — The Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi (EADD), in collaboration with Mubadala Development Company is in the final stages of a three-year project to artificially recharge aquifers (permeable rock able to hold or transmit water) in eastern Abu Dhabi with piped desalinated water from the newly constructed desalination plant at Qidfa in Fujairah. An official from the EAAD said that this will be done through a series of injection and recovery wells at the most optimum Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) site to be selected from an initial feasibility study.

He pointed out that the stored groundwater can be used to supplement potable water supplies to Al Ain city in the summer and other peak demand periods.

The ASR project which was started in 2003 is expected to be completed this year. The project will also allow for 'banking groundwater' and the building up of a large strategic drinking water supply that could be used in times of emergency in case desalination plants are out of commission. ASR is a new concept in the field of non-conventional water resources which is now an accepted world-wide method of managing groundwater supplies.

The official highlighted that the project would develop a 30 billion imperial gallon (BIG) reserve of fresh water by utilising desalinated source water. The final ASR well field will operate at a capacity of 20 MIGD with potential expansion to 100 MIGD. The aquifer will be recharged for about 200 days per year and the stored water would be recovered during the remaining days each year, primarily to help meet the summer peak demands of Al Ain city. This project will identify initially the feasibility of constructing an ASR site in the eastern region of Abu Dhabi. It will then measure the chances of success of a full scale, operational ASR scheme to be implemented in the next phase.