Design of riverbed infiltration gallery for sustainable water supply in Jhargram municipality, West Bengal: an approach to mitigate groundwater exploitation

Abstract

With the rising population in the subcontinent, water demand is also increasing over time. To meet the demand people are using the most available source of water and especially the groundwater. But the world water resources are limited and especially the groundwater resources. People are extracting groundwater without knowing the limitations of it. Which in upcoming decades may turn into a huge problem of water scarcity. The Government has been taking several measures by supplying the demand using available surface water and their further treatment and imposing restrictions on irregular extraction of groundwater. But the problems arise when there is less availability of surface water especially during summer seasons. Thereby groundwater extraction could be a sole solution in these cases. To mitigate the groundwater exploitation, this study concerns about a sustainable water supply by extracting the groundwater using a River Bed Infiltration Gallery at Kangsabati River, Jhargram. In spite of being a perennial river, the Kangsabati usually dries up in the extreme summer which affects the entire region. To proceed the study, a long duration pumping test has been performed to get the aquifer details to further estimate the safe yield of the aquifer so that the groundwater resources can be well maintained. Various methods have been followed in places, to estimate the required parameters necessary for the design of the gallery. To make the design sustainable and economical a gravel pack can also be provided to reduce the treatment cost. Few software have also been used e.g. QGIS, Strater etc. wherever needed. The purpose of the study is to supply the adequate demand to the Jhargram Municipality region to reduce the groundwater exploitation. Keywords: Groundwater exploitation, Infiltration Gallery, Aquifer Parameters, Gravel Pack.