The Journey of Establishing Groundwater Source Protection Zones in Kosovo on the Example of Lipjan/Lipljan Municipality

In the past decade, the Rural Water and Sanitation Support Program in Kosovo (RWSSP) funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has significantly increased the access to public water supply of the rural population of Kosovo. Currently in Phase VI, the programme is supporting the regional water companies of Kosovo to protect the water resources used for public water supply. This article presents the programs phase VI output 2.5.1: improved water source protection. The programme started to support the first implementation of a ground water protection zone (locally called sanitary protection zone) in Kosovo according to laws and through a systematic process. This article describes the full process of establishing sanitary protection zones for public groundwater wells in Kosovo and reveals the technical and administrative challenges and lessons learned when doing so. The technical investigations require detailed surveys starting from geological, hydrogeological and morphological field work as well as monitoring of groundwater levels, realization of additional piezometers, calculation of hydrogeological parameters and several more. For the Lipjan well field, a hydrogeological computer model was established to understand groundwater flow and to delineate the three necessary groundwater source protection zones. The technical understanding further requires a pollution survey and water quality analysis.

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Opracowanie rekordu ze środków MNiSW, umowa Nr 461252 w ramach programu "Społeczna odpowiedzialność nauki" - moduł: Popularyzacja nauki i promocja sportu (2021).