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Changes in the groundwater regime
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4.3.2. Changes in the groundwater regime
Changes in the groundwater regime refers to changes in aquifers as a direct or indirect consequence of human activity (including land drainage). As can be seen from Table 4.1, this issue is considered to have a transboundary status because the impacts of mining industries located within the riparian countries go beyond the national borders, affecting the adjacent territories. However, based on the prioritisation exercise detailed in Section 4.1, this issue was not considered a priority transboundary issue. Consequently, detailed causal chain analysis beyond the immediate causes of the issue was not carried out.
Environmental impacts
The impacts of this issue are linked closely with those of a number of other issues including modification of the hydrological regime (Section 4.3.1), flooding events and elevated groundwater levels (Section 4.3.3), water resource pollution issues such as suspended solids (Section 4.4.4) and modification and loss of ecosystems ands ecotones (Section 4.5).
Loss of biodiversity and natural erosion barriers
A number of adverse effects on the environment have resulted in a reduction in the area of forests (with approximately a twofold reduction over the past 100 years), and a decrease in fish stocks and wildlife resources. Section 3.1.4 describes the forest resource in the Basin. Sections 3.1.5 and 3.1.6 describe the biological resources and nature reserves and protected areas.
The Dnipro Basin has been greatly affected by intensive farming. Large-scale conversion of land to agriculture with little or no regard to soil property and the construction of major land drainage/irrigation schemes and livestock-rearing farms have lead to a loss of natural erosion barriers. The quality of the land resource in the Basin is also progressively deteriorating as a result of toxic contamination, soil erosion and intensive gorge development. In impacted areas, soils are largely characterised by a medium to high degree of fertile layer degradation. The erosion potential is greater for agricultural fields located on steeper slopes, although the simple anti-erosion practice of lateral slope tillage has been applied on only one third of this erosion-susceptible land. Erosion has affected 1,300 hectares in the Republic of Belarus and over 1.0 million hectares in the Russian Federation and in Ukraine. 18.4% of drained land converted to agriculture has also been affected. More details on the agricultural situation in the Basin can be found in the Basin Passport and Section 3.2.5. The consequences of land drainage/irrigation activities are shown in Section 4.4.4 on suspended solids.
Tree-planting schemes designed to prevent erosion are not being implemented at the required scale. The actual area of erosion-break plantations set up every year is only about 1,000 hectares, opposed to a minimum requirement of 3,000 hectares, suggesting that local authorities are reluctant to allocate land for this purpose. Protective forest plantations also play a significant role in terms of managing the environmental situation in the Lower Dnipro Basin, although their proportion is extremely low, i.e. 1%, or approximately 40,000 hectares. The soil permeability level in protective forest plantations is approximately 4 times higher than beyond their boundaries, thereby encouraging flow entrapment and filtration and preventing losses associated with water and wind erosion. More details on the forest resource in the Basin can be found in Section 3.1.3.
The loss of perennial springs with flow rates of more than 0.1 m3/s have been reported to be a problem in intensively drained areas (especially in the Pripyat River Basin), although statistical evidence is not available. The rate of desertification is very high in Ukraine, especially in the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Kherson Oblasts.
Immediate causes
The major immediate causes of changes in the groundwater regime in the Dnipro Basin are:
- Mining industry activities;
- Groundwater abstraction;
- Flow regulation, including required releases from the Dnipro reservoirs.
1. Mining industry activities
A significant proportion of the national mineral resource of Belarus and Ukraine is concentrated in the Dnipro Basin, and together with its related mining industries is one of the major contributors to waste generation and environment pollution. A full description of mining industry activities is given in Section 3.1.4 on mineral resources and in the Basin Passport.
The rich and diverse mineral resource base in the Dnipro Basin has driven the large-scale development of mining and processing industries. The environmental impact of these activities not only affects the regional geology, but also many other aspects of the environment. Large-scale and long-term operations associated with the extraction of minerals have distorted the geological and hydrogeological balance in the Basin, including the groundwater table and water quality. Mining operations involve the storage of stripped soils and wastes associated with the enrichment process. This has resulted in the pollution of the atmosphere, soil, surface and ground waters. Construction of technical reservoirs and the pumping of saline mining waters have lead to a distortion of the natural surface flow regime, thereby affecting the main water arteries in the Dnipro Basin.
2. Groundwater abstraction
Groundwater sources play a significant role in meeting the demand for water. The total projected groundwater resource available in the Basin is about 25 km3, with over 13 km3 being hydraulically isolated from the surface water flow. The 2000 statistics for groundwater abstraction can be broken down by country as follows: 0.687 km3 in the Republic of Belarus, 0.398 km3 in the Russian Federation, and 1.027 km3 in Ukraine. Over 90% of the local population in the Russian part of the Dnipro Basin rely on the groundwater supply, together with 5.8 million people in Belarus and 25 million people in Ukraine. Land drainage/irrigation data are provided in Section 4.3.1 on modification of the hydrological regime.
The projected groundwater resource available in the Russian part of the Dnipro Basin is 2.31 km3/year with an actual daily consumption rate of 1,832,000 m3. Over 50% of the regional demand for drinking water is covered from groundwater sources. The level of groundwater reserve drawdown is below 1.7%. The groundwater resource distribution pattern is extremely uneven, and the deficit is becoming more and more obvious in some areas. For instance, less than 70% of the actual demand for groundwater supply is currently met in Kaluga.
The projected groundwater reserve in the Belorussian part of the Dnipro Basin is 9.27 km3/year. Total groundwater abstraction in this part of the Basin was 721 million m3 in 1995, and 687 million m3 in 2000. Around 5.8 million people are reliant on this groundwater supply. In Ukraine, the projected groundwater resource is 12.8 km3. Of that, 4.7 km3 is hydraulically isolated from the surface flow. Total groundwater abstraction in the Ukrainian part of the Dnipro Basin was 1,645 million m3 in 1995, and 1,100 million m3 in 2000. More details can be found in Section 3.2.10 describing the water uses in the Basin and in the Basin Passport.
3. Flow regulation, including required releases from the Dnipro reservoirs
Excessive flow regulation contributes significantly to this issue. Relevant quantitative data are provided in Section 4.3.1 on modification of the hydrological regime of surface waters and Section 4.3.3 on flooding events and elevated groundwater levels (hydro-engineering construction activities).
Underlying sectoral causes
The major sectors contributing to changes in the groundwater regime are industry, energy, and urbanisation (see Section 4.2).
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