Soil and water contamination in arid coastal zones

The scope of this paper is to. identify the major physical processes responsible for soil and water contamination in coastal deserts. and To quantify the problem of groundwater salinization due to sea water intrusion. The water pollution 'chain reaction' starts when natural groundwater recharge is smaller than total water consumption and it ends with salinization of active wells followed by deterioration of agroproductivity. A mathematical model suggests that this process is non-linear and irreversible. It is concluded that the time to reach 'salinization disaster 'is generally short (10-100 years) It leads to intolerable high concentration of groundwater salinity with fatal consequences to agroproductivity and general water availability.