Abstract
This study characterize groundwater yield and flow pattern on a shallow overburden aquifers of a basement complex rock in Ilara-mokin and its’ environs, southwestern Nigeria. A total of 40 wells were sampled by using a handheld GPS and well estimator to collect data on the wells parameters and the physiographic characteristics of the well’s locations. The data collected include: elevation, longitude, latitude, well depth, depth to water and well diameter of the sampled wells. The mean yield of the well has revealed by this study is 1.21m 3 , with high variability in yield depending on the nature of the underlying overburden aquifers of the sampled well. The static water level, groundwater flow direction, surface profile and 3-D elevation model of the study area were produced from the data collected using ArcGis 9.3 and surfer 8 GIS software. The groundwater flow direction in the study is towards the southwestern part of the study area with few exceptions as the case of Ikota in the eastern part of the study area. The study concluded that Ilara-mokin and it’s’ environs have poor groundwater yield that can sustain the increasing population. It is therefore recommended that there should be proper development, management and advance exploration of the groundwater in areas where water level is close to the surface especially within the lowland areas and isolated marginally thick overburden as confirmed by a previous hydro-geophysical studies carried out in the area. Keywords : Groundwater Flow, Yield, Overburden, Shallow Aquifer, Characterization, Static Water Level.
Highlights
Groundwater is generally portable at source, available in-situ and has low temporal variability which makes it the most important source of water for rural communities (Nyagwambo, 2006).Groundwater development is somewhat complex by highly variable hydrogeological conditions making its management full of uncertainty (Taylor and Barret, 1999)
The wells on the high elevations in places like Aiyetoro area, Better life area, Odo Igbeyin, Oke ode, Ikota, Ero and Ibule recorded the higher depth to water compared to well on low elevations in places like Hospital road, Ipogun among others
The study revealed that the well yield in the study area is very low and as observed by Oladapo et al (2009) that the greater part of the study area is underlain by a marginally thick overburden
Summary
Groundwater is generally portable at source, available in-situ and has low temporal variability which makes it the most important source of water for rural communities (Nyagwambo, 2006). Groundwater development is somewhat complex by highly variable hydrogeological conditions making its management full of uncertainty (Taylor and Barret, 1999). According to Omorinbola (1982) about 50% of Nigeria is covered by the crystalline basement rock. This is a poor aquifer unit with low groundwater potential. That was why Nyagwambo (2006) submitted that groundwater management on a crystalline basement aquifer has the highest level of uncertainty. Momona Ethiopian Journal of Science (MEJS), V6(2)55-72, 2014 ©CNCS, Mekelle University, ISSN:2220-184X
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