V. Groundwater Harvesting

Spring Khazan, Majahir (Syria), ‘Ain (Egypt)

 

Water tank to hold spring water.

Hassy

  
A pit for collecting water from sand above an impermeable layer.

 

Drip water Harvesting

  Water dripping from seepage in a cave is collected in storage pits. Common in Karstic areas where limestone has dissolved to form sinkholes, solution fissures, subterranean tunnels, caves, and other solution features.

 

Open galleries or aqueducts

Open, surface channel used to convey and distribute water (photo F. Hassan, Dab’a, Egypt) 

 

 

Underground Qanats(Qanwat Romani, pl.), Khettara or Kahariz (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan)
A subterranean tunnel connected to a well used to tap and convey water from an aquifer over a fairly long distance down a gentle slope to be used for irrigation and domestic functions.  Storage tanks may be used. The first intake well is called a “mother well”. Shafts or wells spaced within tens of meters of one another serve as air shafts and provide access for maintenance. These were already highly developed in western Iran, northern Mesopotamia and eastern Turkey at least 2800 years ago. The system with modifications and regional variants is known from later periods in Greece, Rome, and the under the Arabs in North Africa. The qanats of southern Algeria and southern Morocco are the best developed outside southwest Asia. Introduced into Spain by the Arabs the qanats spread subsequently to Mexico, Peru and Chile. The qanats are also known from the Arabian Peninsula where they are called Aflaj, and are reported from farther east in China.

Coastal perched water qanats (Egypt)
Water is collected from the freshwater layer perched on top of sea water in subterranean tunnels a few kilometres long with manholes spaced about 20 meters apart. The manholes are excavated in porous limestone underlying coastal dune sand. (photos by F. Hassan, Matrouh, Egypt)

   

 

Artificial basins, Afreg  (Algeria)

 An artificial basin is excavated in a dune field reaching close to the shallow water table supplied by local rainfall.

Wells
Shallow water wells (Jilban, Iraq)

Shallow well to collect water from sand in a wadi bed

 

Walk-in wells
Instead of lifting water by a bucket (with or without a pulley), these shallow groundwater tables are reached either by a ramp which could be also used by animals, or by a staircase, which may be constructed at several levels.

 
           

 

 

Artesian Wells

A well drilled to reach a ground water table. Water rises to the surface as a result of an internal hydrostatic pressure.

 

Artesian well, Egypt (photo F. Hassan)

Kharijah (Iraq)

  A groundwater cistern excavated below ground to harvest water seepage from a shallow water table.

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