'File 19/252 Bahrain Water Supply' [‎39r] (81/96)

There is no way of estimating how much fresh water is being wasted by
overflow through the open ends (south end) of the horseshoe-shaped fringe of
aquifer strata bordering the northern portion of the Island.
The questions that arise are:
1. Is the weight of the sea water of the southern portion of the Island
sufficient to balance the slight head of fresh water of the northern
portion of the Island? In other words, is there an equilibrium be
tween salt and sweet water in the Island district as a whole?
2. Is there a southward flow of sweet water into the sea and thereby cause
large scale wastage of sweet water?
3. Is the withdrawal of sweet water in the northern portion of the Island
sufficient to create a flow of salty water from south to north?
In the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. ^ opinion the salt and fresh water have reached more or
less an equilibrium throughout geological time, that is as erosion progressed
the artesian pressure of the sweet water has been reduced to balance an equal
column of salt water. Large withdrawals of sweet water, at present would
naturally create a flow of salt water from south to north.
Marginal wells, or wells high structurally would naturally tend to draw
in salt water more rapidly than wells down dip because the area of withdrawal
would be less due to drainage from only a semi-circular area and also these
areas would be more excessible to the weathered and cavernous rocks and
therefore the surging tidal condition would be more effective.
Because of the limited time spent on the Bahrein water problem, the
above questions have been considered only hurriedly by the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. and a more
thorough study should be made of these conditions.
SUlv-MARY AND RSC0MM2NDATIONS
1. The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. agrees with Gulmon and Hurry and others that there is a
pressure drop and an increased salinity in going from the northern
portion of the Island to the southern portion of the Island.
2. The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. believes that erosion to sea level of the Eocene rocks down
to the Brown Crystalline Limestone (Zone-B) has caused the above drop
in pressure and the increase in salinity of the water in the southern
portion of the Island. Wells down dip or located low structurally
have a good chance of containing fresh water except in areas where
the upper strata are thin as is the case between the southern part of
Bahrein Island and Qatar,
3. Salty water in the southern portion of the Island might be due to the
thinness of the Shark Tooth Shale and therefore rendering this
impervious member incapable to stop upward migration of Zone-C waters
to Zone-B and higher zones. This problem should be studied in more
detail.