Feasibility of groundwater withdrawal in a coral island

Groundwater on a small coral island occurs in the form of a lens floating o n saline water. The freshwater lens is highly sensitive to various stresses such as pumping, sea tide, etc. Since groundwater is the only source of fr eshwater on the island, it is not only being utilized for various purposes but also there is growing demand for increased pumpage. in order to assess the impact of additional groundwater pumpage, various hydrogeological param eters were obtained through detailed investigations. These parameters were then used to construct a two-dimensional solute transport model and the eff ect of additional groundwater pumpage on quality of groundwater was studied . The model helps in arriving at a safe groundwater pumping scheme. Feasibi lity of groundwater augmentation by constructing a subsurface dam has also been demonstrated.