Pakistan Journal of Geology (PJG)

Journal: Pakistan Journal of Geology (PJG)
Author: Collins Okrah, Emmanuel K. Appiah-Adjei, William A. Agyekum

This is an open access journal distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

DOI: 10.26480/pjg.02.2022.53.59

Groundwater is an important source of drinking water for many people in sub-Saharan Africa due to its generally suitable quality. The Vea catchment of north-east Ghana is well known for its high reliance on groundwater for domestic use. The major livelihood of the indigenes is agriculture, which is severely affected by the seasonal long dry spell during harmattan. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compute the aquifer characteristics to aid assessment of the storage potential for other uses such as irrigation in the catchment using the pumping test method. Pumping and recovery test data on 77 boreholes are used to determine the aquifer properties. The results indicated that transmissivity (T) and specific capacity (Sc) were within the ranges of 0.42–60.8 m2/d and 2–70 m3/d/m, respectively. The T and Sc are linearly related with a coefficient of determination, R2, of 0.85. The area has a specific yield of about 0.06% and a storage coefficient in the order of 10-7–10-3. The shallow aquifer system (below 50 m deep) and the fractured aquifer system have mean safe yields of 138 m3/d and 345 m3/d, respectively. Thus, the groundwater potential can support other uses such as small-scale irrigation apart from drinking. The results of the study could be used as a guide for managing groundwater resources in arid and semi-arid areas. Through careful planning of groundwater withdrawals for irrigation and other uses for the socioeconomic development of the people, this will help improve water security resilience in the catchment.