Source, transport, and evolution of saline groundwater in a shallow Holocene aquifer on the tidal deltaplain of southwest Bangladesh

Abstract

Deltaic groundwater resources are often vulnerable to degradation from seawater intrusion or through interaction with saline paleowaters. The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River delta, in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, is a particularly vulnerable area with an estimated 20 million coastal inhabitants directly affected by saline drinking water. The shallow groundwater of the coastal regions is primarily brackish with pockets of fresher water. A small-scale hydrologic investigation of groundwater salinity beneath an embanked tidal channel island was undertaken to explore possible hydrogeological explanations of the distribution of water salinities in the shallow aquifer. This study employs a combination of 3 H and 14 C dating, electromagnetic subsurface mapping, and a 2-D solute transport model. The authors conclude that the shallow groundwater salinity can best be explained by the slow infiltration of meteoric water into paleo-brackish estuarine water that was deposited during the early-mid Holocene. Abstract The saline groundwater is connate The confining unit varies in thickness The freshwater is supplied by isolated meteoric recharge