ABSTRACT
Groundwater is an important and invaluable natural resource on earth. Because of its several inherent qualities (e.g., consistent temperature, widespread and continuous availability, excellent natural quality, low development cost, limited vulnerability, resilience against drought, etc.) as well as the relative ease and flexibility with which it can be tapped, it has been considered to be a reliable and safe source of water supplies in all climatic regions including both urban and rural areas of developed and developing countries [4, 7, 22, 25]. It can be drawn on demand, and in case of emergency it can be used as alternate source of water making it more attractive to many groups of users. It is estimated that groundwater provides about 50% of the current global domestic water supply, 40% of the industrial supply, and 20% of water use in irrigated agriculture [24]. However, the aquifer depletion due to over-exploitation and the growing pollution of groundwater are threatening our sustainable water supply and ecosystems.
