CONCLUSIONS - Hydrogeology: Objectives, Methods, Applications - page 311

an allowance of 3 L per person per day, but as the quality of life increased,
demand increased considerably and the use of other resources became
necessary. Thanks to the invention of steam pumps that could lift water,
it became possible, in the 19th century, to provide running water from
exploited springs, and then, as urbanization became more and more dense,
local resources quickly became insuffi cient. And yet, despite the small extent
of its territory, the Principality of Monaco, located at the convergence of
several aquifers, possesses abundant groundwater resources, rendered
unusable today by urban development. An adduction from France now
satisfi es around 3/4 of the demand, and the magnitude of this allochthonous
inflow increases regularly, making the Principality dependent on its
neighbor. As a result, the siege of Monaco by France in the 1960s, in order
to prevent French citizens from owning an anonymous bank account in
this tax haven, lasted only a few hours.
b) Malta
Malta's water supply is an interesting subject. La Valette was gravitationally
exploiting a perched aquifer in the limestone at the top of the island,
then this aquifer, fed by cultivated and inhabited zones with no sewer
connections, became too contaminated to be drinkable. The lower aquifer,
in the Globigerina-bearing limestone, separated from the upper aquifer
by a screen of marl, was heavily drawn upon. But this aquifer is in contact
with the sea, and irreversible saline intrusions soon appeared. Catchment
systems were built with vertical wells descending to the roof of the aquifer
with radial galleries enabling the capture of the upper fringe of the aquifer,
in order to avoid the saline intrusions, but this setup is insuffi cient, and
in many cases the intrusions could not be controlled. The emplacement of
hillside dams intended to catch runoff and aid infi ltration in the limestone
allows only an inadequate recharge of the aquifer. Malta, which has one
of the highest population densities (1,265 inhabitants per km 2 ) in the
Mediterranean, must now desalinize sea water, but, in order to do so, it is
totally dependent on its energy supply. Given the strong sunshine of the
island, resorting to solar power is a possibility.
3.1.2 Examples in the Arab world
a) The drying of Iraq by its neighbors
The relationships between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq with respect to the water
in the Tigris and the Euphrates are very tense. The Turkish GAP (Great