Groundwater Exploration and Assessment in Rural Communities of Yobe State, Northern Nigeria

The provision of adequate water supply and sanitation to the rapidly growing urban populations is increasingly becoming a problem for governments throughout the world. The continuing expansion of the numbers of people in cities who need water and sanitation services form a continuous pressure to either invest in additional production capacity or to stretch the available supplies to serve more people. Due to rapid increase in population growth in the Yobe State north of Nigeria, there is a shortage in the water supply to Damaturu city the capital of the state and surrounding villages. At the present the total water supply is about 10,000 m3/day abstracted form the shallow alluvial groundwater aquifer using 29 production wells. Due to the expected increase in water demand and the limited potentiality of shallow aquifer system, other deep aquifers were explored and investigated to evaluate their potentiality for future water demand. Vertical Electrical Sounding Method was used for the geophysical survey of the study area. Groundwater flow model was developed and calibrated against the historical information. Three wellfields were designed to provide Damaturu city and surrounding villages with the required water. The calibrated model has been used to evaluate the aquifer potentiality and the effect of future withdrawals on the deep aquifer system. It was found that the aquifer system within the study area consists of two main layers. The upper layer is the Chad formation comprises an alluvial sand and gravel with intercalation of thin sility clay layers. The second layer is Keri-Keri formation consists of sandstone formation which is not explored before. During this study the Kerri-Kerri aquifer system was investigated as an alternative source for groundwater for future demand. The study presents an integrated groundwater resources management strategy for present and future water supply for rural communities.