Groundwater Recharge Management In Semi-Arid Regions, A Case Study Of Khazir-Basin

Groundwater has become a preferable and reliable natural treasure in last decades as an alternative of surface water. This is due to high demand on water especially after surface resources faced negative impacts under the influence of climate change and contamination exposure. This fact forced the stakeholders and hydrogeologists to seek for another alternative using groundwater resources. The study area (Khazir-Basin) covers about 1055 km(2). It is located in mountainous-undulating area in Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq. The average annual temperature and precipitation are 19 C degrees and 669 mm, respectively. The numerous deep wells have been drilled in the study area during the last 50 years and most of them are penetrating Bakhtiari Formation (the main aquifer) with average depth of 200 m. The Lower Bakhtiari Formation mostly consists of cycles of gravely sandstone, sandstone and red mudstone fining upwards, while in the upper part the Upper Bakhtiari Formation consists of conglomerates. This formation covers over 75 % of the study area.The application of groundwater management over the region is facing several obstacles due to the high demand in daily use (domestic, agriculture and industry) and the scarcity of water resources under the effect of climate change as well. Recently, Kurdistan region is challenging two main tasks politically related to the problem of exploitation of transboundary water bodies (rivers) with Turkey and Iran, because all main headwaters of rivers are out of Kurdistan Region. The second field of problems to be solved is the socio-economic culture of consumers concerning the miss-obligation toward consuming rules with the absence of state regulation. This paper will discuss the appropriate issues of groundwater management for the case study region.