ADAB AL-BASRAH

Safwan- Zubair area is located at south of Iraq. It represents the southern sector of Iraqi Desert which is an arid region with scarce and finite resource. Because no perennial river exists, groundwater is a major natural resource within the area being question. The upper part of Dibdibba Sandy formation, clastic sand unconfined usages with high drainage soil condition. This study investigates the hydrologic budget of the aquifer for the period from (1980 to 2000). The original groundwater reserves in the usable aquifer is estimated to have been approximately (3136  106 m3). Prolonged groundwater extraction (equal to 300.8  106 m3 on the average basis) in excess of the natural rate of replenishment (equal to 92  106 m3 on the average basis) has critically lowered groundwater levels in the exploited aquifer where the net decline of head is of about (0.52 m). Depletion of storage will induced undesirable effects on the aquifer including salinization and upward saline leakage from the deep aquifer due to change in the vertical flow rates (equal to 56  10+ m3/y on the average basis). Four alternative plans are suggested to alleviate the deterioration of aquifer groundwater, quantitively and qualitively. These including: redistribution of operating wells uniformly over the study area, designing shallow ponds with appropriate diameters, redistribute the agricultural area and type of crops with minimum water consumptions like cereal instead of tomato, and artificially recharging the aquifer.