Groundwater potential and quality assessment of the Oti Pendjari and Obosum Groups of the Atebubu municipality

Abstract

This research was conducted to assess the possibilities of siting sustainable aquifers for borehole drilling and to assess the quality of water in hand-dug wells and existing boreholes in the Oti Pendjari and Obosum Groups of the Atebubu municipality. Groundwater is the main source of water to the people of Atebubu, but access and sustainability has been a major challenge over the years, owing to its complex underlying rocks. Groundwater occurrence and exploitation in the Voltaian has been reported by many researchers to be poor. In this research, the induced polarization (IP) method has been employed to delineate locations of high groundwater potential in the Atebubu municipality and to assess the quality of groundwater used by inhabitants of the area. The IP data was processed using the RES2DINV. version 4.9.18 Inversion and Modelling software, while the groundwater samples were analysed with the SPSS for Windows, version 22.0. The results revealed moderately to extremely fractured rocks with high possibility of water contents at greater depths, where rocks such as sandstone, pebbly beds and limestone are expected to exist. The low groundwater potential zones are likely to be covered by rocks such as mudstone or shale. A minimum drilling depth of 120 m is generally recommended for the municipality. The water quality analysis results also revealed that the water the people of the municipality drink is of high quality as all physicochemical parameters and heavy metals tested for were well within the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) standards for drinking water.