A Visibility Study for Choosing the Dug Wells Alternative versus Deep Wells for Water Supply (Published)

While access to water remains an essential issue in arid and semi-arid regions, aquifers have the potential to help millions of people out of a reliable source of water. Boreholes are increasingly advocated as a safe and cost-effective substitute to mechanized drilling, as well as to traditional excavation methods. The main target of the present study is to evaluate and locate the possibilities of water resources occurrence in the proposed area, indicate whether to use a deep well or a shallow dug well. The study consists of three steps; the first step was drilling the dug well after data collection and allocates the suitable well location. The second step included a pumping test for the productive well lies at Nabq- Sharm El-Sheikh – South Sinai with a depth of 114 meters which was done. The third step included a water quality monitoring for the well, as the samples was taken each 12 hours for 3 days from the existing well. It is concluded that for the presented model of using large diameter wells instead of small diameter wells has shown insignificant improvement in the well yield in the study area. For the well under consideration, it is recommended to operate this well for a pumping rate of 50 m³/hr (for 24 hours per day) to maintain the long-term drawdown at 3 meters in addition to the well losses which is less than 0.5 meter.

Keywords: Deep Well, Development Area., Hydrogeology Study, Pumping Test, Water Quality, Water Resources

Physico-Chemical Evaluation of Groundwater in Ogbia, Bayelsa State, Nigeria (Published)

This study evaluates the physico-chemical properties of groundwater in Ogbia, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.  Standard field and laboratory methods were followed. The results of the study revealed that the pH value ranges from 6.4 to 7.1 with an average of 6.86 indicating a slightly acidic condition. The concentration level of iron in the study area ranges from 0.1mg/l to 4.2mg/l with a mean value of 1.89mg/l. 13.3% of iron in sampled locations satisfy the World Health Organization (WHO) and Nigerian Standards for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ) highest desirable level of 0.3mg/l. The concentration of calcium ranges between 3.0mg/l to 13.1mg/l, with a mean value of 8.83mg/l, while magnesium concentration was from 1.8mg/l to 9.0mg/l, with a mean value of 5.6mg/l. The concentration level of phosphate in the study area ranges from 0.02mg/l to 0.19mg/l, with a mean value of 0.12mg/l.  Chloride concentration level in the sampled locations was between 10mg/l to 39mg/l, with a mean of value of 23.8mg/l, all the values recorded were within the permissible WHO and NSDWQ standard of 250mg/l.  The low concentration level of chloride in the area indicates that there is no salt water intrusion, hence all the locations have freshwater. The cations were in order of abundance as Na⁺ > Ca ²⁺ > Mg ²⁺ > Fe ²⁺ > Mn ²⁺, while anions were in the order of abundance as SO₄ > Cl > NO₃ > F > NH₃ > PO₄. Piper Trilinear Diagram for the study area showed that there were mixtures of two types of water with variable concentrations of major ions. These were sodium-chloride type and sodium- sulphate type of water, an indication that the water was from a marine source. Based on the result from this study, there is the need for regular ground water quality monitoring and effective management strategies in the area.

Keywords: Contamination, Freshwater, Groundwater, Ogbia, Water Quality, major ions