Accepted Papers - 3.pdf - UNESCO

National Seminar on Rainwater Harvesting and Water Management 11-12 Nov. 2006, Nagpur
63. Suggested Design Approach for Planning
and Designing Recharge Wells and Systems
� Introduction
It is needless to mention that it is already a
high time that high priority and importance is
assigned to systematically start planning and
executing recharge projects in all the areas to prevent
the ground water depletion and create a systematic
and scientific battery for ground water storage for
use throughout the year. If systematically planned
and executed on coastal belt the recharge wells can
prove to be a very useful barrier to sea water
intrusion.
Lot of efforts are being made and lot of talks
are being done all around in various bodies
connected with ground water about recharge
structures. In many places even regulations are being
made for making it compulsory to make recharge
wells in societies etc. In some of the states like
Karnataka, Kerala much importance is already being
given to rain water harvesting which requires a
recharge well ultimately to percolate the rain water
into the ground to recharge the aquifers.
Hence the recharge well is the core mechanism
of recharging the ground water for all kinds of water
collection methods – check dams, rain/roof water
harvesting, water logging areas etc.
It is also seen that different types of designs of
recharge well is being adopted by different bodies
and there does not seem to be a commonly accepted
design proven to be the optimum for achieving the
maximum efficiency of recharge.
Hence a need was felt to develop a standard
design approach giving clear guidelines for
designing the recharge well. This article attempts to
initiate the process of defining the design criterion
and a general design approach and further work
needs to be done to make it more and more specific.
*Dharmesh Mashru
What is a recharge well
Even at the cost of some repetition of what we
already know let us define clearly what a recharge
well is supposed to do and how it works in very
simple terms. A recharge well is a natural injection
well to inject the water supplied to it by recharge
mechanism into the desired aquifer to be recharged.
The water collected in recharge catchments
mechanism enters the pipe assembly of well and acts
against the already present hydrostatic pressure of
water already available in the aquifer, overcomes
the friction of the well casing, screen slots, gravel
pack and formation and tries to penetrate thru the
formation to start storing more water in the available
voids in an unsaturated aquifer till the time the
aquifer is saturated. Very simple as it sounds but
equally challenging if one wants to give full justice
to the design.
Important considerations for designing a
recharge mechanism
Following are the important aspects for planning
a recharge mechanism project
� The location of recharge mechanism
This is a very important aspect and much study
is required to be done before selecting a recharge
site. It is seen that presently the only consideration
given while selecting the site is the natural collection
of water – either a lake or a pond or a water logging
spot or building check dams across flowing river
etc.
But, to create an efficient and sustainable site for
recharge following approach is recommended –
� Common recharge site shall be planned for a
*Chief Operating Officer, Johnson Screens (India) Ltd.- Ahmedabad
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