Impact of surficial factors on groundwater quality for irrigation using spatial techniques: emerging evidence from the northeast region of Ghana

The need for quality water in Africa for agriculture cannot be underemphasized amidst the current global water crises. The focus of this study sought to evaluate the quality of groundwater for irrigation purposes while unearthing the emerging challenges in the study area. In total, 202 groundwater samples were collected, and several parameters were tested. The study employed QGIS and multi-criteria decision analysis to examine zones of suitable groundwater quality for agriculture. Findings from the study indicate that the primary water types were Na–HCO3 and Ca–HCO3. The overall accuracy (OV) of the land use land cover (LULC) map using the Random Forest (RF) algorithm was 94.5%. The analysis revealed that SpH influences GpH at p = 0.02891 (p < 0.05) and SOM and SOC influence GNO3 at p = 0.044 (p < 0.05). The overlay analysis spatially classified the groundwater in the study area into three categories of suitability with ariel coverage showing areas of good quality (1,534.34 km2), moderate quality (1,933.35 km2), and poor quality (1,815.21 km2). The results from this study uncovered that 72.33% of the samples were within the desirable limits and can be concluded that the quality of groundwater in the area is acceptable for irrigation.