Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Estado de las aguas subterráneas en El Salvador

2006; Spanish National Research Council; Volume: 117; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

2253-6167

Edanjarlo J. Marquez, Wilmar Hernández, Claudia Rivas, Martha Guevara Sanginés,

Historical and socio-economic studies of Spain and related regions

El Salvadors surface area is 21.041 km 2 . The country is divided in 10 hydrographic regions in which all rivers drain to the Pacific Ocean. The most important hydrographic region is, without doubt, the one known as Lempa River. The surface extension of this basin is appro- ximately 49% of the country. It shows an annual mean surface runoff of about 63%. The second largest basin is Rio Grande de San Miguel with a surface area of 11% of the country and a mean surface runoff of 7%. Three out of ten basins are international. The Lempa River basin is shared with Honduras and Guatemala. The Paz River basin is shared with Guatemala and the Goascoran with Honduras. About groundwater resources in the country, most of aquifers are found in quaternary material of volcanic origin. In the Lempa basin three areas can be clearly differentiated: The first one located up and at the right side of Cerron Grande. There is groundwater in the smaller basins of Sucio, Acelhuate, Suquiapa and Texis. The second one is located between Cerron Grande and 15 de Septiembre hydroelectrical dams, here the groundwater resources are scarce. The third area is located at southern part of the country between 15 de Septiembre hydroelectrical dam and the Pacific Ocean, where aquifers are quite important. Others basins with important aquifers are: Rio Grande de San Miguel, Rio Paz, Jiquilisco Bay, Comalapa and Guayabo rivers and the zone between Grande de Sonsonate and San Pedro rivers.