Abstract
Through the practice of irrigation, surface water reservoirs (SWRs) contribute to the socio-economic development and food production activities of populations in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, they tend to dry up prematurely. One solution to circumvent these irrigation water shortages is to ensure their conjunctive use with groundwater. The objective of this study is to better understand the contribution of SWRs to groundwater recharge and to determine if groundwater may be considered as a complementary local resource for irrigation. The study was carried out on two watersheds in Burkina Faso, Kierma and Mogtedo. The spatiotemporal analysis of piezometric and SWRs level records coupled with physico-chemical analyses of water was used to characterize exchanges between SWRs and groundwater. The regional groundwater recharge at the scale of the watersheds was assessed. At the SWRs scale, a water balance methodology was developed and used to estimate focused recharge. The results show that SWRs interact almost continuously with groundwater and contribute focused recharge. The magnitude of this recharge is a function of the geological context and the sediment texture of the SWRs. It is estimated at 5 mm/day in Kierma and 4 mm/day in Mogtédo. These values are higher than the natural recharge estimated at 0.2 mm/day in Kierma and 0.1 mm/day in Mogtédo. Additionally, the values of hydraulic conductivity are between 0.01 and 2 m/day in Kierma and between 1 × 10−4 and 0.2 m/day in Mogtédo. These conductivities could allow pumping in large-diameter hand-dug wells with a significant yield between 0.5 and 120 m3/day in Kierma and between 0 and 10 m3/day in Mogtédo to palliate the early drying up of the SWRs.
Highlights
Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the main source of livelihood for the majority of people according to Jalloh et al [1]
To quantify the focused recharge induced by irrigation surface water reservoirs (SWRs), several methods based on water balance have been described in the literature: environmental tracer method [31] modeling [74] and the classical water balance method [75,76]
This approach is often applied to SWRs for irrigation and domestic use without taking into account the withdrawals that can sometimes represent more than 40% of the SWR discharge during non-rainy months [26,37,77]
Summary
Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the main source of livelihood for the majority of people according to Jalloh et al [1]. Water 2020, 12, 2880 dams or surface water reservoirs (SWRs) to secure agricultural production and reduce the effects of climate change on human activities [9,10,11]. These structures ensure water availability for part of the year by storing temporary runoff and rainwater [12,13,14]. They mainly promote the development of supplemental irrigation, off-season irrigation, and livestock [15,16] These structures are often poorly maintained and faced with overexploitation and the high evaporation of resources, which often contributes to their early drying up [17]. These problems have negative consequences for the activities that depend on such structures
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