Reliable groundwater management: the continuous improvement method

Abstract

Over the world, a majority of water resources are managed by small- and medium-sized companies. Despite having limited personnel and financial resources, these companies have to ensure their groundwater management contains adequate quality control. This is an objective that any company can achieve with the means at its disposal, by using the continuous improvement method. In contrast to the technical approaches mainly used, which focus on the aquifer and the groundwater, the method presented in this article is specifically geared towards the individual conditions of the company extracting the water. A method of sustainable groundwater management is steadily built up by starting with the resources a company has available. The advantage of this approach is that any company, with its financial and personal resources, can achieve suitable groundwater by doing as much as it can within the bounds of its possibilities. Instead of calling in expensive external experts for a short period, the continuous improvement method calls at first for the participation of the company’s employees and others involved. The aim is, ultimately, for learning organizations to be able to actively develop their own quality assurance strategies. The method introduced also enables a number of different water suppliers to collaborate within a network. Moreover, usage of the same guidelines allows international comparison. The continuous improvement of groundwater quality covers three scopes: groundwater extraction, groundwater protection, and the groundwater management system. In the following, the management system is based on sections from the International Standardization Organization (ISO 9001:2000) international quality management standard. The method is described using the example of mineral water and spa companies, which are often subject to difficult hydrogeological conditions.