Fresh groundwater resources of Georgia - Global climate change impact, anthropogenic pressure and activities for sustainable groundwater management

As in the rest of the world, the issues of global climate change impact and anthropogenic pressure on fresh drinking groundwater resources are very relevant in Georgia. This is especially important for Georgia, as this country is rich in fresh groundwater resources, but at the same time there are many challenges in terms of sustainable management of this resource.

Even before climate change trends became obvious, Georgia paid significant attention to groundwater research. Before early 1990’s, continuous hydrogeological monitoring had been carried out in order to protect groundwater resources. Detailed hydrogeological surveys have determined that Georgia’s natural fresh groundwater resources amount to 573 m³/sec and that water has the highest quality. Since then, for more than three decades, no centralized hydrogeological monitoring and groundwater cadaster have been carried out. Meanwhile, demand for fresh water has been steadily increasing, and uncontrolled drilling operations have and are being conducted for groundwater extraction. Failure to comply with environmental safety standards when selecting well construction and drilling works has a negative impact on both quantitative and qualitative characteristics of groundwater resources. Under conditions of improper operation, extraction of water from aquifers above the exploitation norm leads to their dry, impact on nearby water points (including springs), groundwater-related ecosystems, etc. Also, if one well crosses several aquifers, contamination of one of them (primarily a layer near the surface) causes the contaminants to migrate to other aquifers, which were normally considered to be naturally protected.

To assess the above pressures and to plan appropriate recommendations, the primary activity is monitoring studies. After many years, Georgia has been taking significant efforts since 2013 to restore the national network for fresh groundwater monitoring. LEPL National Environmental Agency (NEA), at the initiative of the Geology Department and with support from the Czech Development Agency (CzDA), has installed modern hydrogeological monitoring equipment on two wells in the Alazani artesian basin. The measure has been followed by gradual connection of water points to the monitoring network, and currently the monitoring covers 66 water points – 60 wells and 6 natural springs. Each well is equipped with a monitoring station, which uses sensors and dataloggers to perform continuous automatic monitoring of main quantitative and qualitative parameters of groundwater regimes (water discharge, level, pressure, temperature, pH, conductivity, TDS). Monitoring of springs is carried out by electronic sensors and data collector ,,Levelogger”. Twice a year, the NEA conducts chemical and bacteriological analysis of water samples from the monitoring water points.

Surveys conducted in 2013-2021 enabled the specialists of the Geology Department of the National Environment Agency to develop recommendations, which should be implemented in stages to assess the current state of groundwater resources and to use them racionally. In this regard, an informational hydrogeological report was published in 2021 - ,,Assessment of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of Fresh drinking groundwater resources of Georgia (analysis of the current situation, forecast and recommendations)”. The report was sent to all interested organizations - the scientific community and water management policy implementing agencies.