THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF HUMANS ON GROUNDWATER IN LEBANON

The execution of most large water projects in Lebanon has been continu ously postponed, due to political reasons for the period preceding 197 5 and to the civil war after that date. The accumulated impacts of mis management and shortage in water supplies forced population to drill t heir private wells and extract groundwater to meet their increasing ne eds. This uncontrolled action has significantly deteriorated the quali ty of groundwater, reflected in the increasing salinity of extracted w ater from coastal aquifers, and in the contamination of many wells and springs by improperly disposed waste water. The overexploitation of t he aquifers has led to considerable decline in the discharge of spring s and rivers amounting 18.8% between the 1960's and early 80's, irresp ective of rainfall fluctuations. This study shows that the water budge t in early 1980's has decreased appreciably, relative to 1960's budget . In Mount Lebanon basin the amount of precipitation dropped from 2700 to 2214 m(3) yr(-1), the rivers' discharge declined from 1320 to 834 Mm(3) yr(-1), and the recharge to groundwater decreased from 733 to 60 1 Mm(3) yr(-1).