HOUSEHOLD LEVEL SURVEY OF GROUNDWATER USE AND VULNERABILITY IN THE

DEDUAKO – KODIEKROM COMMUNITY

DERY SYLVESTER PAAWA AND TESIEN KPALEN
Department of Geography and Rural Development
KNUST-KUMASI

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted in the Deduako – Kodiekrom community of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly of the Ashanti Region, Ghana. The area was chosen because of the heavy dependence of the people on
groundwater for their daily activities. In this study, the broad objective was to assess the uses and vulnerability of groundwater at the households' level in the Deduako – Kodiekrom community. A two-stage
sampling method was used to select 88 households. The first stage was the selection of the community by the use of purposive non – probability sampling technique, and the second stage involved sampling for
the households using a simple random sampling procedure. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from the respondents. The study revealed that, groundwater in the community is
predominantly used for domestic activities such cooking, washing, drinking and bathing. Also the study further revealed that groundwater sources in the community are less vulnerable to pollution by considering
variables such as distances from the water sources to the pollutant sources, soil texture and groundwater flow. Groundwater quality analysis is recommended to be undertaken to determine the biological, physical
and chemical parameters of the water in the community and the Municipal at large. The study emphasized the importance of applying groundwater vulnerability assessment in the management and protection of
groundwater resources in Ghana.

INTRODUCTION RESULTS DISCUSSION

 The study shows that respondents Sources of water in the community
Groundwater is water that is located below the earth's surface. Over Abraham (2014), noted in his work that most urban areas in
rely on several sources of water
time, water from rain and rivers migrates through the ground and is 90 84
Ghana are endowed with several sources of water. And these
including boreholes, wells, rainwater 80 73

NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS
stored in porous soils and rocks. According to Appelo and Postma, 70

60 sources vary from natural sources to man-made sources like

and pipe (Ghana water). Out of the
(1993), groundwater can be defined as water stored in the pores of
50

40
41
wells, boreholes and pipe. He further stress that urban households
total number of eighty-eight (88) 30
soil or in aquifers. It constitutes the largest reservoir of freshwater in 20 by force of circumstances rely on several sources of water supply
respondents who participated in the 10
7

the world, accounting for over 97 percent of all freshwaters available
survey, eighty-four (84) households
on earth (EU, 2016). The importance of this groundwater to many of
depend on boreholes, seventy-three
the households, industries and agriculture activities of the world
(73) rainwater, forty-one (41) wells,
cannot be over underestimated. According to Afonso et al., (2016),
and seven (7) pipe (Ghana water).
groundwater remains a vital renewable resource that supports daily
important functions such as domestic, agricultural, and industrial
 The findings show that the
activities in many urban areas including major cities across the
groundwater sources in the
world.
community are closer to the
respondents since they normally
. 60m.This imply that the groundwater sources in the community are
walk an average distance of 55m
METHODS AND MATERIALS and minimum and maximum
distance of 17m and 223m
respectively.
 The results show that all the
respondents (88) used the water for
domestic purposes including
0 since no one source is capable of supplying all their water needs
Borehole Hand dug
well
Rainwater Pipe(Ghana
water)
WATER SOURCES throughout the year. Similarly, this study shows that respondents
Figure 1: Sources of
rely on several sources of water including boreholes, wells,
water to households
rainwater and to a few instances pipe.
With regard to the distance travel by respondents from their
various households to the existing groundwater sources in the
study community, respondents travel a minimum and a maximum
distance of 2m and 272m respectively. Also, the average distance
traveled by each respondent to the water sources is about
closer to the respondents’ households.
Generally, groundwater in the community is used for domestic,
agricultural and industrial purposes, with majority of the
Figure 2: Groundwater respondents using groundwater for domestic activities. This finding
extraction points within the is not far different from the various literatures reviewed on
study community groundwater uses. The study identified the sources of
88 groundwater pollution to include toilet, refuse dump, septic tank,
90

80
KVIP and soakaway. And this is in consistence with the various
drinking, cooking, washing, 70

literatures reviewed on the sources of groundwater pollution.

NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS

60

cleaning and other activities. The 50

CONCLUSIONS
40

result further shows that seventeen 30

17

(17) respondents also used the 20

10 3

water for agricultural purposes 0

Domestic Agricultural Industrial
The study assessed the use and vulnerability of groundwater
sources in the Deduako – Kodiekrom community. Dwelling on the
USES OF WATER

while only three respondents used

the water for industrial purposes. Figure 3: General uses of findings of the study, the researchers conclude that the use of
groundwater in the study groundwater in the study area is basically domestic including
 The results shows that the community cooking, drinking, bathing and washing. This gives the impression
proportion of groundwater supply that the use of groundwater in the area is not highly diverse since
to other water supply is as high as Table 1: Proportion of it is skewed mainly to domestic purposes.
61% of the total water consumed groundwater use to other Moreover, the sources of groundwater in the community is said to
in the community, while the other water sources be less vulnerable since there are enough evidence to support the
sources of water supply in the Water sources Frequen Percent
claim that groundwater sources in the community are not
community including principally cy
vulnerable to pollution. Some of these evidence include the
rainwater and pipe constitute only Borehole 84 41.0
geological factors of the area; soil / rocks and the locations of the
39%. The survey shows that over Hand dug well 41 20.0 water sources with respect to pollutant sources.
90% of the respondents used Rainwater 73 35.6

rainwater as an alternative source Pipe (Ghana water)

of water supply.
 The study revealed the sources of
water pollution in groundwater
system to include toilet, refuse
dump, septic tank, KVIP and
soakaway. The study further
shows the minimum distance from
the water sources to the pollutant
sources to be about 17m while the
maximum distance is about 194m.
Besides, the average distance
from the water sources to the
pollutant sources is about 98m.
Total 205
7
100.0
3.4
REFERENCES
1. Abraham, k. (2014). Biological and physico - chemical quality of
ground water around the old municipal refuse dump site at
ahenema kokoben. M.sc Thesis, Department of Environmental
Science, KNUST.
2. Adams , B., & Foster, S. (1992). Land-surface zoning for
groundwater protection. J. Institut. Water Environ. Manage.
London., pp. 312-320.
CONTACT
Dery Sylvester Paawa & Tesien Kpalen
Figure 4: Distribution of
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
pollutant sources with respect Email: pdsylvoo@gmail.com/tesienkpalen69@mail.com
to distance from the water Phone: 0501543818/0501544017
sources