Saline groundwater risks

• Drinking water for humans: Groundwater is often used as a resource for drinking water. Currently, proof of negative health effects associated with the ingestion of high TDS water is not evident (WHO, 2006). Hence, the World Health Organisation has not defined a health-based drinking water quality guideline value for TDS (earlier WHO had a highest desirable TDS guideline of 500 mg/l and a maximally permissible TDS guideline of 1500 mg/l). Such values do exists for individual chemical components like fluoride that contribute to salinity.
• Plant growth: The presence of salt in the soil moisture causes plants to exert more energy extracting water from the soil. The main point is that excess salinity in soil water can decrease the plant's water availability and cause plant stress.. Toxicity problems may occur if certain constituents (ions) in the soil or in the water are taken up by the plant and accumulate to concentrations high enough to cause crop damage and limit plant growth.
• Soil properties: Soil water salinity affects the soil properties by causing fine particles to flocculate into aggregates. This is beneficial in terms of soil aeration, root penetration, and root growth. Sodium has the opposite effect  of soil dispersion. This causes clay particles to plug soil pores, resulting often in reduced soil permeability.
• Crop yield and agricultural production: The above described combined effects of soil and water salinization may reduce crop yields, limit the choice of crops to be grown in a certain area and may make land semi-permanently unsuitable for further agricultural purposes.
• Watering of livestock: Watering of livestock with saline groundwater may cause physiological upset or even death. The main reported effect is loss of appetite, which is usually caused by a water imbalance rather than related to any specific ion. less than 5000 μS/cm should be satisfactory under almost any circumstances.
• Infrastructure: Groundwater salinity may reduce the life of domestic, agricultural and industrial equipment and increases maintenance costs. The salinity may cause corrosion of metals and concrete). Also scaling (crust formation) due to the precipitation of dissolved salt when materials are in contact with highly salinized groundwater may be a serious problem. Salinity increases the "hardness" of water, which may necessitate the use of more soap and detergents or water softeners installed and maintained.
• Ecosystems: Various types of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are groundwater-dependent. Discharge of saline groundwater into these aquatic and terrestrial ecological systems often leads to a general biodiversity loss and a change into more salt-tolerant type of biota.

These risks come with associated costs