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Subsurface depleting aquifers in the sedimentary terrain of Quetta Valley in Balochistan: a review

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Abstract

Quetta Valley is part of the Pishin Sub-basin is in the northern section of the Kirthar Belt and has Lower Jurassic to Holocene strata. It is an arid mountainous region with low mean annual precipitation of 150–200 mm between 1999 and 2019. The population of Quetta City has increased from 0.26 million in 1975 to 3.0 million in 2016, causing an increased burden on groundwater now it is depleting at an alarming rate of 1.5–5.0 m/year in certain parts of the city. The Quetta Valley comprises of two types of aquifers: the alluvial aquifer and the limestone aquifer. The issue of unmanaged groundwater depletion is present in many areas of Quetta City. The alluvial and limestone aquifers in the Quetta Valley were depleted after two decades of heavy use from hundreds of illegal tube wells and agricultural wells. With the increasing population and low precipitation of the Quetta Valley, this review paper examines many variables that contribute groundwater depletion. According to earlier research, uncontrolled pumping of groundwater resources has deteriorated water quality and reduced its quantity in the Quetta Valley. The current study predicted an overall reduction in the static water table in the limestone aquifer between 1.0 to 2.5 m/year over the water years 1987 to 2020. In contrast, it was estimated to be 1.5 to 5.0 m/year in the alluvial aquifer.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad for providing full financial support under Local Challenges Fund Project No. 20-LCF-63 titled “Metering the aquifer using a smart monitoring and data-driven approach to assist in devising an adaptive groundwater management strategy in Balochistan” and Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan, for funding during the collection of literature data and the writing of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. US-Pakistan Center for Advance Studies in Water, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan

    Abdul Latif Qureshi, Shahzad Hussain, Farhad Ali Memon, Arjumand Zahra Zaidi, Sumaira Zafar & Waqas Ahmed

  2. Centre for Pure and Applied Geology, University of Sindh Jamshoro, Jamshoro, Pakistan

    Muhammad Afzal Jamali

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  1. Abdul Latif Qureshi
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  2. Muhammad Afzal Jamali
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  3. Shahzad Hussain
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Correspondence to Shahzad Hussain.

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Qureshi, A.L., Jamali, M.A., Hussain, S. et al. Subsurface depleting aquifers in the sedimentary terrain of Quetta Valley in Balochistan: a review. Arab J Geosci 15, 1648 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-10930-9

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