Abstract
This study investigated shallow groundwater quality and yield for irrigation along Hadejia River Basin of Jigawa State in both the dry and rainy seasons of one year. Sites in the floodplain with a history of irrigation where the use of tube wells is dominant were selected covering a transect of about 135 km. Six transects, oriented perpendicular to the river channel were established within 1 km2 in each site. Three tube wells were sampled and positioned along each transect at regular intervals, making a total of 18 wells in each site. To ensure quality control and quality assurance, the sampling standard methods prescribed by APHA (2005) were followed carefully for the collection of groundwater samples. Pumping test, which was repeated four times at 15 min interval in both morning and evening hours was used to measure groundwater yield. Multivariate statistical tools such as analysis of variance, Pearson product moment correlation, and cluster analysis were used respectively, to test the research hypothesis and to classify sampling points into similar groups based on groundwater quality. Results showed that the suitability of the water is lower in the dry season than in the rainy season. Average yield of wells for evening hours recorded a higher yield of 3.3 l/s (56%) than yield in the morning hours of 2.6 l/s (44%). Although groundwater average yield was found to be within the standard (2.5 l/s) for irrigation, it is realized that any extraction of the resource more than the prevailing rate can induce a decline in groundwater yield. A decision support system is recommended among the strategies to improve groundwater resources management in the area. Key words: Shallow groundwater, condition, floodplain irrigation, River Basin.
Highlights
The importance of water to life on earth, to human beings, becomes clearer when one considers its role or usefulness in various aspects of human endeavor (Olofin, 2011)
A bibliographic survey based on Google Scholar Citation Index and the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) database was conducted to evaluate groundwater-related research in the area covering different perspectives
A bibliographic survey based on Google Scholar Citation Index and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) was conducted to evaluate groundwater quality-related research from different perspectives covering a period of 14 years (2002-2016)
Summary
The importance of water to life on earth, to human beings, becomes clearer when one considers its role or usefulness in various aspects of human endeavor (Olofin, 2011). In many African countries such as Niger, Botswana, and Ghana, groundwater accounts respectively for 71.43, 50 and 47.56% of their total freshwater sources (Xu and Usher, 2006) and accounts for over 60.9% of the domestic supply in the Ejisu-Juaben municipality of the Ashanti Region of Ghana (Ghana Statistical Service, 2012). Groundwater accounts for only 28.90% of the total freshwater in Nigeria (Xu and Usher, 2006), about 128 million people (85% of the total population) depended on this resource as at 2001 mainly due to the deterioration in the quality and quantity of surface water, insufficient water supply by water authorities, effect of climate change and above all rapid population growth (Akujieze, et al, 2003). In the drylands region of Nigeria (Figure 1), the interplay of climatic and geological characteristics makes surface water virtually inadequate, and as such groundwater appears to be the only reliable source of fresh water for domestic and agricultural use, principally in the Chad formation areas of these regions (Tukur et al, 2016)
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