Groundwater exploration in the Voltaian system

A large portion of the Voltaian Basin lies within the drought-prone areas of Ghana. A vast majority of the inhabitants of the basin is rural-based farmers who depend mainly on water from ponds with ephemeral streams and depressions for water. During the dry period these surface supplies are usually exhausted leaving the farmers desperate and highly ex­posed to water-borne diseases. Groundwater development offers the best alternative in this area. However, attempts to improve the groundwater situation have been beset with problems associated with exploration and development methodologies, to the point that certain areas have been excluded from groundwater exploration due to their unfavourable morphological and geological setting. This paper attempts to address this teething problem by combining the use of remote sensing techniques, geology and geophysics. Follow-up field studies have revealed that it is possible to find sustainable groundwater for most of the communities if regional surveys take precedence over local site investi­gations. This would involve higher cost in the short term while the long term results would be cost-effective.