These formations are composed mainly of calcium silicates. They occupy small areas within the Chalk and Chart formations.
During the Senonian Age better circulation with the open sea was established as indicated by the deposition of the pelagic chalk. It is of Santonian – Campanian age and mainly consists of chalk with absents of bedding. It covers a large area of the West Bank and is composed of Abu Dies formation only (Rofe and Roffty, 1963, Wolfer, 1998).
Lower parts of Abu dies formation consist of gray hard chalk and lime chalk, fossil-ferrous and sometimes bituminous. The upper part consists of chalk and chart with some limestone and phosphates (Wolfer, 1998).
1.3.2 CSA Hydrogeological System
Figure1.6 shows two main Aquifer systems composed of the eastern aquifer, a largely phreatic upper Cenomanian-Turonian Aquifer, and a largely confined lower Cenomanian aquifer
Foothills, the Jordan valley, (SUSMAQ2005), and Upper aquifer have stronger fluctuate than those of lower aquifer. It is not continuous to be utilized everywhere. In many places, it is dry and in others it leaks downward into the lower aquifer along open fault planes where the two aquifers juxtapose extension into vertical leakage can occur and seepage into aquiclude of
Limy formation makes it less impervious. Many springs in the catchment are located in the upper Aquifer, like Samia and Bettin. Auja Spring is located in the central mountain aquifer which is closed to the lower aquifer and is adjacent to N-S fault which divided the upper
Figure 1.6: CSA Hydrogeological map of lower and upper Aquifer
Aquifer, like Samia and Bettin. Auja Spring is located in the central mountain aquifer which is closed to the lower aquifer and is adjacent to N-S fault which divided the Cenomanian and Turonian systems. On the other hand, Al Duke and El Nui’meh springs lie on the edge of the Turonian system which the agriculture wells distributed in shallow alluvial lower Quaternary aquifer.
1.4 Literature Review Review of Relevant Works
The National Water Plan (NWP) was developed in 2000 to summarize the main concepts.
Findings and recommendations of Water Sector Strategic Planning Study (WSSPS) adopted the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) concepts and developed investment plan for the water sector in Palestine (CEDARE, 2005).
The best management plan for groundwater systems in the West Bank will be one that takes 80% of the potential recharge as the safe yield. The best scenario that meets the Palestinian water demand over the coming decade is the one that considers the various economic, social,
political and environmental needs. In addition, it is imperative that adequate plans be prepared to accommodate urban development and to ensure that potential areas of groundwater recharge in the West Bank are protected (Rabi A., Khaled A., Carmi N., 2005). The additional water that will be available for the Palestinians will be either from a. Eastern aquifer, b. the Jordan River, or c. treated wastewater. However, all of this water is saline and another source such as the mountain aquifers seems to be difficult to be secured soon (Sheikh M.Y, 2004).
Water management in the Dead Sea basin and elsewhere must be based on systemic solutions such as allocation priorities for different water qualities plus changes in water usage patterns.
Solutions for sustainable development will not come simply from providing “more water for more development”. Sustainable development will have to be sensitive to social, cultural and ecological resources as well (Clive L., 2005). The level of monitoring rainfall and the hydrologic system in the Eastern Drainage area, as well the level of modeling the hydrologic system there are inadequate for planning the management of drought conditions in this area.
The regression analyses carried out in the course of the study are initial steps in modeling the groundwater system in the Eastern Drainage area which needs to be continued (Khalid A.M, 2000).
Blank in 1928 described Auja area as Auja monocline, Hull, (1886; Picard, 1943). The Jericho sheet includes part of the eastern flank of the Judean Arch ,Begin Z.B,1974, the mountain system (Judea Group) manifested by Ein Samia and Ein Auja, with fresh water. Ein Auja supplies anualy13 MCM water to Auja e-Tahta' (Rad A. & Michaeli A., 1967). The structure of the northern part of the Judean Wilderness is simple (halocline) without any important tectonic interruptions while the southern half contains a number of structure converge (Rofe and Rafety, 1963).
North of Jericho in the Jordan Rift Valley the floor of the valley is covered by alluvial sediments. Cretaceous limestone may be found in the underground area where there is outcrop in the hills to the west and the intake area of rainwater. Water drainage in this aquifer is to the east into the graben. The problem is locating this aquifer below these alluvial sediments in high structural position (Ginsburg A., 1964). There are six main wadis cross the Jericho district: Wadi Makalak, Wadi Auja, Wadi Abu Ubeida, Wadi An-Nui'meh, Wadi Al-Qilt and Wadi Al-Ghazal. Wadi Al-Makalak runs north south, while the remaining five wadis run east west. Wadi Al-Auja and Wadi Al-Qilt have permanent water flow while the rest are intermittent (ARIJ, 1996).
Special attention should be drawn to the values of nitrate(˃40mg/L) in the groundwater especially in Sultan and Dyouk springs (Abu Hilo F., Khayat S., Marie A., Geyer S, 2008).
Such geophysical survey would lead to three-dimensional understanding of the hydrological situation and would help build a good conceptual model that is necessary for a substantial management of the Pleistocene aquifer (Gropius M, 1999). The ground water in Jericho area is very limited with lower quality in the last year (2005) due to decreasing recharge water.
The mixing calculation shows that there is kind of mixing between fresh and brackish water toward the east while salinity increases toward the east (Al-Jundi M.R., 2005).
Water quality of the eastern aquifer differs from one sub aquifer to another and shows varieties within the same sub aquifer. The majority of sub aquifers belongs to the Cenomanian age and drain from the lower deep aquifer (Ghanem M., Tamimi A.R, Khayat S., Geyer S., Ali W. and Hotzl H.,2008). Public-Private Partnership (PPP) fulfils the need to develop wastewater reuse practices in Palestine. This also helps in establishing large reuse schemes, which facilitate the protection of receiving water bodies, public health and ecosystem (Abed El-Hady R.M., 2008).
In conclusion there are indications of some leaching of organic contaminants into the sampled wells including 19-15/023 in Auja area. This implies that the solid waste dumps as well as agricultural activities have the potential to release contaminants into the underground water especially that the existing dumps are not lined and are poorly managed. But the level of contamination needs further monitoring before determining the extent of pollution (Sansur R.M, 2007).
Salinity of the ground water has deteriorated over time due to over pumping especially in the Jordan valley. Therefore using fresh water for irrigation is questionable. Additional water available for the Palestinians will be either from the eastern aquifer, the Jordan River, or from treated wastewater all of which is saline water. AS for other sources such as mountain aquifers, there is difficulty in securing this in the near future (Sbeih M.Y., 2006).
Furthermore, two salt bodies occurred in the study area ,Auja and Zaharat Qurrin, probably acting as the source for fresh water salination. It should be pointed out that the occurrence of salt bodies along the Rift Valley is well established. The geographical distribution and the geohydrological location of the salt bodies as well as their geometry and dimensions are essential for conducting an efficient water management (Flexor A., Guttmann J., Shulman H., Anker Y., Yellin-Dror A., Davidson L., 2005).
In the Jordan valley, water prices are US$ 0.175 per m³ and this reduces farmers’ income without any effect on the production structure; prices higher than US$ 0.325 make most agriculture production alternatives unprofitable (Hamdan M.R and Salman A., 2006).
Bananas can only be grown in Al Auja and Jericho, and are relatively profitable. A kilogram of bananas yields around NIS 5 whereas the profit from growing tomatoes barely covers the
cost of water (Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 2009).
The available water per capita in the West Bank differs considerably among West Bank governorates; it ranges from 29 L/ capita/ day in Tubas governorate to 200 L/capita/day in Jericho (PWA 2002, 2003). The annual domestic water demand is 140MCM/a (Jayyousi 2000).
The Lower Jordan Valley is an area with high water supply, yet with very variable regional and social availability. Our data confirm the observation that indeed there is no scarcity of water but there might be a “secondary scarcity”, namely the capacity to properly manage the available water supply (Trottier, 1999).
1.5 Challenges in LJV and Research Needs
The main challenges in the LJV as well as in the CSA are listed below:
- Political and administrative constraints with regards to usage of water resources;
- Complex and difficult social dimension (Rejection of using Treated Waste water (Al-Bireh WWTP: 2.0 Mm3/a, Jericho WWTP: 3 Mm3/a);
- Complexity of hydrological systems.
- Lack of agricultural and water sector specific legislation, regulations, means and long-term water action plans;
- Water scarcity and inequity distribution of water in irrigated agricultural lands (individual owners);
- Qualitative degradation of regional water resources;
- Leakage of sector data and net resources; and - Poor technical level in some water sectors.
1.6 Research objectives:
For this research, the focus should be on the following aspects:
● Identify water development strategies as combined measures to ensure sustainability in agriculture;
● Study social, economic and environmental performance of these strategies.
● Identify priority interventions with regards to water production and hydro-infrastructure.
● Study different water allocations and storage schemes (MAR) for agricultural extension, taking water quality and salinization problem into consideration; and
● Compare options with regards to the extension of regular agriculture, the introduction of salt resistant crops (Date Palm trees) and new irrigations technologies.
1.7 Methodology:
1.7.1 Data collection (stakeholders' consultations and field data) The following data has been collected