Experience and Prospects for Underground Water Development in Oasis Irrigation of Sands in the Western Caspian Region

An assessment is given of the hydrogeological potential of the Terek-Kuma sands of the Western Caspian region, the strata of which contain significant reserves of underground water (artesian, ground water) of the Caspian lowland, which are located near the feeding glaciers of the Greater Caucasus. In terms of their chemical composition, they are suitable for irrigating woody and herbaceous ameliorant crops, as evidenced by the long-term scientific and experimental experience of the Achikulak Research Forestry Experimental Station of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Agroforestry Reclamation (now the North Caucasus Branch of the Federal Scientific Center for Agroecology, Integrated Land Reclamation, and Protective Afforestation, Russian Academy of Sciences) on the sands of the Bazhigan massif, which provides a wide potential for the use of self-pressure (artesian) and free-flow (ground) underground water in oasis irrigation of sandy lands. Compared to the capital-intensive model of preliminary reservoir accumulation of self-flowing artesian waters for irrigating pastures, the project of using ground water for irrigating fodder phytocenoses directly from wells, by pulsed sprinkling using renewable energy sources (sun, wind energy), appears to be more profitable and faster to pay for itself. According to forecast estimates, the potential of the region’s underground water is sufficient for hydromelioration of more than 100 000 ha of sandy lands in an arid territory.