Abstract There are two main factors which prompt to look for an alternative to traditional approaches to the provision of drinking water. They are climate change and population growth. Climate change and its increasing scale are no longer in doubt. It tends to increase the frequency and intensity of droughts. Changes in average water availability in most Central Asian river basins are estimated to be drastically big for the next 30 years. And, groundwater recharge may also be affected with a reduction in the availability of groundwater for drinking water in some regions. Water use has been increasing worldwide by about 1% per year since the 1980s, driven by a combination of population growth, socio-economic development and changing consumption patterns. Global water demand is expected to continue increasing at a similar rate until 2050, accounting for an increase of 20 to 30% above the current level of water use, mainly due to rising demand in the industrial and domestic sectors. These obliging to redefine the strategy for the use of water resources to ensure sustainable drinking water supply forcing the use of all available water resources even those that were not previously taken into account, for example, off stream storage reservoirs. Research, development and innovation play an important role in supporting informed decision-making. Therefore, further scientific and engineering studies are also needed for the development of financially affordable, safe and efficient infrastructure services in the areas of drinking water supply, sanitation and hygiene and its components. The article considers a particular reservoir the bottom of which is composed of saline soils operating in regular filling and emptying and subject to significant wind effects. The research conducted allowed to find a place of water intake location which provides a minimum salt content in the water abstracted.