Assessment Of Groundwater Potentials Of The Crystalline Aquifers Using Hydraulic Propertiesfor Gidanwaya Town And Its Environs, Southern Parts Of Kaduna State, North Western Nigeria

Abstract

Pumping test data for 25 boreholes were used to evaluate the hydraulic properties of the aquifers derived from the crystalline Basement rocks of Gidan Waya in southern part of Kaduna State Sheet 188 Jema’a NE and NW North Western Nigeria using the Cooper – Jacobs’s non equilibrium graphical procedures. The transmissivity values for the 25 boreholes in the area have a range of between 1.16x10^-1 and 9.76x10^-3.The hydraulic conductivity values are between 1.12x10^-2m/s and 9.24x10^-3m/s. The specific capacity values in the studied area ranges between 1.00x10^-1 and 9.95x10^-2_. The maximum drawdown recorded for the boreholes is between 4.24 to 22.9 m while the drawdown per log cycle ranges from 0.28 to 4.40 m.  The above range of aquifer properties has revealed the area to be of high to very high groundwater potentials. Lithological borehole logs revealed the aquifers in the area to comprise of clay, silt, sand, gravels and fractured basement rocks aquifer materials. This is further supported by the values of hydraulic conductivity obtained. Generally the result of the pumping test analysis shows that the boreholes on the average have high groundwater potentials with capacity to sustain withdrawals for regional importance in most cases and in fewer situations the supply can only be local and limited.

Keywords:  Basement Complex, Aquifers, Groundwater potentials, Hydraulic Properties.