Date Published:

Abstract:

Reduction of water resources has led water managers to search for adequate solutions to respond to increasing demand. Artificial recharge of aquifers by resources drawn from far away is a mobilisation mode adopted especially in arid areas. The cost of this operation is often very high but counterbalanced by the advantages provided by this mean: • mobilisation of this resource in zones were it’s very available; • injection by different means in aquifer zones whose characteristics are known; • a storage mode which allows to conserve resources from evaporation, as opposed to storage in dams that are also confronted to deposits that reduces considerably their capacity; • Artificial recharge can also benefit from natural mean of transport when it takes into account the groundwater hydraulic gradient at a time of choosing injection zones. Artificial recharge by direct recharge on permeable zones constitutes the most used mean but such zones are the most vulnerable to pollution. The cartography of the groundwater pollution potential of a given area, combined to repartition of favourable zones to artificial recharge, constitute a tool to decision making concerning the choice of recharge zones that takes into account environmental aspects. This approach is applied to the El Madher plain which is located just at the North of Batna city (North-East of Algeria).