TITLE:
Delineation of Well Head Protection Areas for the Public Wells in the Ferizaj Region (Kosovo) with Limited Data Availability
AUTHORS:
Argjend Hajra, Mario Roidt, Stephanie Isabel Lobensteiner, Randolf Rausch
KEYWORDS:
Water-Resources Conservation, Groundwater Protection, Numerical Modeling, Limited Data Availability, Kosovo
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.13 No.2,
February
11,
2022
ABSTRACT: The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has funded the Rural Water and Sanitation Support Programme (RWSSP) that has increased the access to public water supply throughout Europe’s youngest state—Kosovo—in the past ten years. The Programme, implemented by Dorsch International Consultants GmbH and Community Development Initiatives has, among other activities, implemented groundwater protection methods. Nevertheless, groundwater protection remains a challenge in Kosovo. The water law describes that water source protection is similar to German rules, yet modelling-based planning of water source protection zones remains challenging. In the present study, the development of the hydrogeological and the mathematical groundwater model for the technical delineation of the well head protection area for the Ferizaj well fields under limited data availability is described in detail. The study shows that even when not all data are available, it is possible and necessary to use mathematical groundwater models to delineate well head protection areas.