Remedial Measures for Saline Water Ingression in Coastal Aquifers of South West Bengal in India

Various researchers have reported and described the adverse effects of saltwater ingression in coastal zones of different parts of world like Italy, Japan, Greek islands, Oman, Nigeria, Atlanta Coast USA, Turkey, Netherlands, Catalonia and Sardinia and various coastal areas of India [1-35]. India has long coastal line of 5700 km. The east coast (Coromandel Coast) extended from West Bengal to Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. The western coast (Konkan Coast) extended from Kanyakumari to Gujarat. Except Gujarat and little part of Maharashtra the ingression of saline water is severe in the eastern coast in comparison to west coast. Field-based studies have been conducted by various researchers [1-16,1820,23-27,30-32,34]. The nature and position of interface and delineation of fresh groundwater and saline groundwater bodies at the aquifer of Digha beach at Purba Midnapur was studied. The depth of interface was found lesser than the interface calculated as per Ghyben-Herzberg principle [16]. Coastal aquifers of the Lagos metropolis, Nigeria were selected for an assessment of its groundwater quality and impact of saline water intrusion [31]. The coastal aquifers adjacent Lagos lagoon, Nigeria has experienced salt water intrusion, the geophysical and geochemical mapping techniques has been conducted. From this study, it was deduced that excessive groundwater extraction and possibly the reduction of groundwater gradients which allows saline-water to displace fresh water in the aquifer of the investigated area are responsible for the saline water intrusion as observed [1]. The change in behaviour of farmers as well as the development of appropriate management strategies, an empirical survey with stakeholders and physically based modelling of the groundwater-agriculture hydro-system interactions is taken into considerations. The study is exemplarily investigated for the south Batinah region in the Sultanate of Oman, which is affected by saltwater intrusion into a coastal aquifer system due to excessive groundwater withdrawal for irrigated agriculture [20]. The hydro-geological basis of seawater intrusion and describe specific cases in Catalonia and Sardinia, as examples of environmental problems and water management actions are reviewed. The origin of salinization and the hydro-geological details of each case, as well as the solutions were implemented to prevent groundwater salinization [24].