RECHARGING OF CONTAMINATED AQUIFER WITH RECLAIMED SEWAGE WATER

About 40% of the water supply of Cairo, Egypt, is drawn from a groundw ater reservoir located southeast of the Nile Delta. Several thousand s hallow wells supply drinking water to the farmers from the same ground water reservoir, which is recharged by seepage from Ismailia canal, th e irrigation canal network, and other wastewater lagoons in the same a reas. Sewage water lagoons were located at the high ground of the area , recharging contaminated water into the aquifer. Since the groundwate r in this area is used for drinking purposes, it was decided to treat the sewage water recharging the aquifer for health reasons. In this pa per a solution to the problem is presented using an injection well rec harging good quality water into the aquifer. A pumping well located at a distance downstream is used to pump the contaminated water out of t he aquifer. A three-dimensional solute transport model was developed t o study the concentration distribution with remediation time in the co ntaminated zone.