Brackish Groundwater Utilization Potential of Beach Wells in Kuwait- A Case Study

A study was conducted at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) campus for the efficient utilization of groundwater supply from beach wells for KPC’s offices and greenery activities of its buildings. It is intended to utilize about 300 m³/d of freshwater for irrigation, fountains, and cooling system. This amount of freshwater may need about 600–700 m³/d of groundwater from the beach wells to be produced and treated. Three test holes were drilled, drill cuttings and representative groundwater samples were collected. Subsequently, two monitoring and two production wells were drilled, constructed and groundwater samples were collected. Groundwater samples were analyzed for water quality parameters. Pumping test and recovery tests were carried out in the newly constructed wells. The sediment study showed bottom suspension and rolling beach environment dominated by fine, medium and coarse sand. The groundwater quality at the study area is brackish and is of NaCl type reflecting the salinity from the nearby seawater. From the pumping test data analyses it is inferred that the groundwater at the vicinity can be extracted from one production well at a time at the rate of 655 m³/d with stable water table and water quality. It is recommended to design a Reverse Osmosis (RO) unit (spiral wound membrane configuration) to treat the groundwater with an average feed water flow rate of 25 m³/h to produce high quality freshwater of salinity 100 to 300 mg/L. It is expected that about 12.5 to 15 m³/h fresh water can be produced from this unit.