Depletion of the Cretacic Carbonate Aquifer in the Salento Peninsula (Southeastern Italy): The Case of the Chidro Spring

Abstract

The groundwater is the main hydraulic resource for the Apulia region. The apulian groundwater reservoirs are primarily stored into mesozoic carbonate aquifers and are usually interested by the seawater intrusion phenomena with the freshwater floating on the seawater. Such water is nowadays widely used to satisfy the domestic demand both in terms of potable and irrigation water, according to mismanagement strategies which in the past years have given rise to the deterioration of the aquifers and wider effects of the saltwater intrusion. Public administrations directly involved into such issues have supported a research project finalized to the characterization of the Apulian aquifers and to the detection of appropriate solutions for a clever management. According to these studies, whose results are in print, the unrestrained pumping activity nowadays carried out across the whole region (more than 100,000 well points surveyed) is not sustainable anymore. The present paper deals with one of the most representative case studied, the case of Chidro spring. At the beginning of the past century the Chidro spring was characterized by an average water flow of around 2,600 L/s whereas, according to recent measures, the average flow is nowadays drastically dropped down to around 1,000 L/s. As a consequence of such flow reduction the width of the aquifer which supplies the spring is also significantly reduced allowing for an uplift of the underlying seawater level. The depletion of the underground water resources is doubtless due to the mismanagement of the uncontrolled pumping carried out in the past decades, which needs to be properly controlled and managed.