Groundwater quality and protection

Drilling for groundwater in the Atacama Source: BGR

Germany disposes of sufficient water resources for a sustainable water supply of good quality due to the abundance of rainfall and of good aquifers. Groundwater, mostly extracted from wells and less commonly from springs, supplies approximately 70% of all water for public water supply.

In the preceding decades much emphasis was dedicated to improving water quality. Protecting groundwater from harmful pollutants requires the allocation of protection zones, the removal or enclosure of contaminated sites, and the implementation of increasingly stricter environmental protection laws. The effects of all these measures are constantly evaluated in a large-scale monitoring programme. Drinking water is the most strictly monitored livelihood in Germany. Due to a generally favourable groundwater quality, technical measures to convert groundwater to drinking water are usually restricted to iron and manganese removal and an adaptation of pH.

Geogenic groundwater quality of Germany Source: BGR

In order to safeguard this positive development, both national and international investigations are being carried out to monitor the effects on groundwater for example by agricultural fertilizer applications, former industrial plants, abandoned mining sites, and former military sites. These studies assess the contaminant input and try to develop strategies to minimize or remediate it. Therefore engineers and scientist of the BGR closely cooperate with public and private partners. The results in turn help to improve the body of legislation for water resource protection.

The BGR laboratory employs a whole range of modern methods to analyze the quality of water samples, including major and trace elements. It also disposes of modern equipment for sampling of wells and surface waters.

In the framework of international cooperation projects commissioned by the Federal German Ministry of Economical Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the BGR water quality experts also carry out work in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This includes the quantitative and qualitative assessments of the present water resources, but also the development of protection concepts, always in close cooperation with local partners and stakeholders. Problems which were mostly eliminated in central Europe several decades ago may still affect water quality in these countries. This often includes the presence of faecal bacteria in groundwater which infiltrate through waste water, especially in zones where recollection systems and treatment plants are scarce or non-existent.

Current projects:

• Method development for groundwater travel times
• Vietnam: Improving Groundwater Protection in the Mekong Delta
• Zambia: Improving the Capacities of Groundwater Protection in Zambia

Find a compilation of all groundwater related projects in the English or German project list.