ORIGIN OF THE ALLUVIAL AQUIFER’S GROUNDWATER IN WADI BISKRA (ALGERIA)

F. LATER, A.S. LABADI

Abstract


The alluvial aquifer of wadi Biskra is located just upstream of Biskra city (city of the Algerian Sahara). This aquifer has an area of 5km² and an average thickness of 20m; the volume of alluvium deduced from geophysics being 100 hm3. The porosity calculations carried out using the curves of the groundwater piezometers yielded an average value of f = 30% for an alluvium volume of 100 hm3 and a stored volume of exploitable water of approximately 30 million m3

Currently 14 boreholes with an average depth of 40m capture water from this aquifer and the exploited flow rates are in total of 1409 m3/h. The flood’s surface water of the wadi (four to five floods per year) and the low rainfall average (125 mm/ year) cannot explain the non-drying up of the alluvial aquifer.

The use of several approaches; hydrogeological (by hour-by-hour monitoring of the variation in the piezometric level), hydrochemical (analysis of groundwater and hour-by-hour monitoring of the variation in groundwater and air temperature), hydrological (study of the variation relationship piezometric levels depending on precipitation in the watershed) and structural (analysis of fracturing) highlighted the existence of a third source of supply; this is deep mesothermal water which rises towards the water table and brings to the aquifer a quantity greater than that supplied by flood waters. The presence of this water source explains why the water table does not dry up during the long dry summers and periods of drought.


Keywords


Algeria, Alluvial aquifer, Biskra, mesothermal water, Piezometry, Temperature.

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References


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