Ground Water Development and Sustainable Agriculture

Project summary

This project will strengthen research capacity in Ghana on hydrogeological research and develop an improved understanding of the groundwater resources in the White Volta Basin in Northern Ghana. A groundwater flow model will be developed to support quantitative assessments of the variations in groundwater budgets and the sustainability of groundwater resources development for large scale irrigation. The project will largely use historical data available with the local stakeholders in the area. Airborne geophysical data, collected during the extensive EU Mining Sector Support Program for the Voltaian Basin, will be utilized. The project will comprise close collaboration between research groups in Ghana and Denmark utilizing the respective strong expertise of each group such as: i) Danish researchers expertise on processing and inversion of airborne electromagnetic data for geological characterization and use in geological modelling and national scale groundwater modelling and studies of climate change impacts on groundwater, and ii) Ghanaian researcher expertise on the local geology, hydrogeology, and field investigations.

Moreover, the project will include training of Ghanaian PhD students who will carry out part of the project work as part of their training. The results of these investigations, and the stakeholder involvement in scenario development, will culminate in participatory integrated assessment of piloted cost-effective, sustainable and resilient irrigation scheme which involves the application of groundwater resources in the area.