Groundwater suitability assessment in the Upper Denkyira East and West Districts of Ghana

Year 2025, Volume: 20 Issue: 1, 1 - 18

Vıctor Oforı Agyemang

Abstract

The Upper Denkyira East and West Districts heavily rely on groundwater for all of their various water needs. The rising levels of surface water pollution brought on by mining, farming, improper waste disposal, and galamsey activities necessitate evaluating the quality of the groundwater for drinking, domestic use, and irrigation. Finding out whether the groundwater was suitable for drinking, domestic use, and irrigation was the goal of the study. Groundwater in the area can be classified as mixed water, NaCl, CaHCO3, and CaMgSO4. Three processes including rock mineral dissolution, ion exchange, and the effects of anthropogenic activities are major factors influencing the chemistry and overall quality of the groundwater in the area. The water quality index indicates that 38%, 38%, 3% and 21% of the water samples are of excellent, good, poor and very poor qualities respectively for drinking. The groundwater is unfit for drinking without prior treatment due to its low pH, high pH, high Fe, high Mn, and high PO4- levels. The quality of groundwater is impacted by both geological processes and anthropogenic activities like improper agrochemical application, galamsey, and improper waste disposal. The study discovered that 48% of the groundwater types were excellent, 34% were good, 14% were moderate, and 3% were poor based on IWSI. The IWSI was calculated using EC, SAR, Na%, RSC, KI, PI, MH, and CR. The IWSI results and the USSL and Wilcox diagrams, which demonstrated that the groundwater falls within the excellent to good categories, concur. The study has shown that the IWSI method is reliable technique for assessing irrigation water quality.

Keywords

Upper Denkyira, Groundwater quality, Groundwater Quality index, Drinking, Domestic, Irrigation

Ethical Statement

Compliance with Ethical Standards Funding: The author received no funding for this study. Conflict of Interest: The author declares that he has no conflict of interest. Availability of data: All data used for this study are included within the manuscript.

Thanks

Acknowledgment: The author appreciates the Management of the CWSA, Cape Coast for making data for this study available.

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