Evaluating the productivity of basement rock aquifers for sustainable groundwater development in sub-Sahara Africa using borehole pumping experiments and geophysical data

Abstract

Ensuring all-year-round groundwater availability in the basement complex regions of sub-Sahara Africa requires careful combinations of strategies for exploration, development, and management of groundwater resources. The productivity of the basement aquifer of sub-Sahara Africa, SSA, was evaluated in terms of the volume of water produced per unit time, the aquifer transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity, specific capacity, and the thickness of the water-bearing zones using a suit of data from borehole pumping experiments, geophysical surveys, and lithologic logs from Opaque Field in sub-Sahara Africa. Findings from the study have been used to classify the basement complex aquifers of sub-Sahara Africa into three categories: marginally productive, low productive, and moderately productive. Weathered and fractured zones were found to be bright spots for groundwater storage, and aquifer productivity correlates with topography and the thickness of the weather zones. Most of the boreholes located on the low topographic heights were found to have the highest groundwater discharge, transmissivity, and hydraulic conductivity. Further, the study showed that the popular models used for estimating aquifer properties are unsuitable for basement complex aquifers. The results of the models are exaggerated when compared to the pumping test results. Cases of dry holes or poorly performing wells in the basement complex terrain may be attributed to the exaggeration. Consequently, two new and novel quantitative models were proposed and tested for evaluating the productivity parameters of basement aquifers of SSA for optimal selection of sites for groundwater development. The aquifer productivity maps computed with the new quantitative models show striking similarities to those computed from the pumping tests results and confirmed the appropriateness of the new quantitative models. The appropriate pumping device, pump operation time, and installation depth were recommended for the boreholes producing groundwater from the three categories of aquifers identified in this study.