Groundwater links between Kenyan Rift Valley lakes Item Type Proceedings Paper Authors Becht, Robert; Mwango, Fred; Muno, Fred Amstrong Citation Odada, Eric & Olago, Daniel O. (Ed.) Proceedings of the 11th World Lakes Conference: vol. 2. p. 7-14 Download date 26/09/2021 23:47:46 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/3518 Groundwater links between Kenyan Rift Valley lakes Robert Becht1 , Fred Mwango2 , Fred Amstrong Muno3 1 ITC PO Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, the Netherlands 2Ministry of Water and Irrigation, PO Box 49720, Nairobi, Kenya 3Ministry of Water, Lands and Environment, PO Box 7096, Kampala, Uganda Abstract Naivasha and magnitude of the proposed underground seepage. It is uncertain which methods The series of lakes in the bottom of the Kenyan Rift valley he used, but he estimated that water was seeping are fed by rivers and springs. out of the lake at a rate of 43 million m3 year-1. Based on the water balance, the relative positions determining the regional groundwater flow systems and In his note on Lake Naivasha the hydraulic engineer the analysis of natural isotopes it can be shown that acknowledged outflow and assumed it would be 3 -1 groundwater flows from lake Naivasha to lake Magadi, between 0 and 46 million m year (Tetley, 1948). Elementeita, Nakuru and Bogoria. The higher estimate tallies remarkably well with more recent estimates. Introduction The first attempt to address the direction of flow in The African Rift system is an extensive graben the Naivasha area is made by Thompson et al., system extending from the Red Sea to Southern (1958). They constructed a basic piezometric map Africa. The drainage can be described as a chain of with inferred flow directions. closed drainage basins with inflow from the flanks of the rift. The Kenyan Rift valley lake basins from Mcann (1992) was the first to attempt to look at the North to South are: Turkana, Logipi, Baringo, integral water balance of lakes Naivasha, Bogoria, Nakuru, Elementeita, Naivasha and Elementaita, Nakuru, Solai, Baringo and Bogoria. Magadi. He estimated a subsurface outflow to the Nakuru Lake Logipi, L. Bogoria, L. Elementeita and L. and Elementeita catchment to be about 37 million Magadi receive a considerable part of the inflow m3 year-1 using Darcys law. Based on the Naivasha from springs. Lake Turkana, Baringo, Nakuru are lake water at least 34 million m3 year-1 infiltrates to mainly fed by rivers. Only Lake Naivasha and Lake Naivasha groundwater reservoir. He further Baringo are freshwater lakes. estimated that about 14 million m3 year-1 and 23 million m3 year-1 of groundwater inflow is required to The lakes have been subject to various studies. maintain constant lake water level for Lake Numerous studies address the ecology of the lakes Elemeinteita and Lake Nakuru respectively. (Harper, 2002). The size of the lakes correlate well the climatic conditions and therefore the coverage Gaudet and Melack (1981), extensively studied the and sediment cores have been used to reconstruct chemical and water balnce of Lake Naivasha. Thy the past climatic conditions over East Africa (Olago, concluded that there is a subsurface water outflow 2000,Verschuren, 2002). from the Lake Naivasha but that this plays a minor role to explain the freshness of the lake. The water Especially the water balance of the economically balance for 1973-1975 show equal groundwater in important Lake Naivasha has been studied for more and outflow. The outflow constitutes 20% of the total than half a century. The outflow of Lake Naivasha outflow. has been debated since the lake is studied. Due to its freshness the existence of outflow has hardly Åse et al., (1986) worked on the surface hydrology been doubted. However, the magnitude and of the lake and mass balance equation to derive direction of outflow is subject of discussion. possible subsurface outflow from the lake. He doubted however the possibility of an outflow due to Previous studies of exploration of the Naivasha area the thick impeding clay layer covering the lake began as early as 1880’s by European explorers. bottom Thompson of the Royal Geographical Society of England noted the freshness of the lake water and Clark et al., (1990) and others used groundwater attributed it to being either of recent origin or the hydraulics and isotope methods to determine the lake having an underground channel. Gregory water flow. They refer to a previous water balance (1892) suggested that the lakes freshness was due study suggesting an outflow of 50 million m3 year-1 . to undiscovered underground outlet. Nilsson (1938) The flow to the south is via relatively shallow proposed that the Lake’s freshness was a result of aquifers less than 500 m depth, and these may water both entering and leaving the Lake via account for 50 to 90% of the total flow. Estimate of underground seepage. the northerly flow by the same authors was 11.3 million m3 year-1. In 1936, Sikes made the first statistical attempt to estimate monthly and annual water budget for Lake 7 Lake Baringo is likely to have groundwater outflow to explain its freshness. The flow from Lake Bariningo is exclusively directed towards the North feeding the perennial hot springs of Kapedo and Lurosio. (Darling, 1996) (WRAP, 1987) Odhiamdo et al., (2005) have published the water balance of Lake Baringo. In Ethiopia the ground water link between Rift valley lakes and the water balances has been described by several authors (Legesses (2004), Ayenew (1998), Darling (1996). Physical setting The Southern Rift Valley Lakes (SRVL) in Kenya are from North to South the Lakes Nakuru, Elementeitata, Naivasha and Magadi. Of these lakes Lake Naivasha is fresh. This is explained by its location at the culmination of the rift valley floor (1885 m asl) provoking the outflow of groundwater. This refreshes the lakes and prevents the accumulation of salts. To the North Lakes Elementaita and Nakuru have elevations of 1776 and 1755 m asl, respectively. Lake Magadi has an elevation of 550m asl and acts as an absolute sink of water and solutes. This is manifested by the thick soda deposits covering most of the lakes surface. The climate of the rift valley bottom is semi arid with average rainfall of 400-600 mm year-1. The open water evaporation is in the order of 1700-2500 mm year-1 , leaving a water deficit of more than 1 m yr-1. To replenish this deficit the lakes are fed by surface or groundwater. Figure 1. Map of the study area. Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru are mainly Darling et al., (1990) were able to determine the recharged by perennial rivers and ephemeral direction of the outflow from lake Naivasha. They streams during the rainy season. The surface water used stable isotopic composition of the fumaroles inflow into Lake Magadi is limited and the main steam from volcanic centers in the areas to infer recharge comes from a series of springs. Lake groundwater composition. Using simple modeling Elementeita is fed by rivers and springs. The techniques they traced the outflow from the lake up perennial rivers originate from the eastern and to 30 km south. Lake water has also been detected western flanks of the rift with rainfall up to 2000mm in Olkaria steam. The work confirmed that of Allen -1 year (1989) that most of the water leaving the lake goes out between Olkaria and Longonot, whilst a smaller Groundwater links: the regional picture portion goes north between Eburru and Gilgil. The regional picture of groundwater flow between Suttard et al., (1992) in a study commissioned by the the RVL can partly be deduced from lake properties. European Union derived an outflow from Lake In a lake with only inflow all dissolve solids Naivsha of 45 million m3 year-1. accumulate and the lake turns salt. The most Ojiambo (1992) deduced from piezometric surfaces extreme example of this is Lake Magadi that acts a that the subsurface outflow from Lake Naivasha final sink for large drainage area, and contains thick originates from the southern shores of the lake, and deposits of soda. In contrary, fresh water lakes are then flows southerly and southwesterly toward flushed by either surface water overflow or Olkaria. He estimates that the main lake outflow groundwater outflow. fluxes ranges from 18 and 50 million m3 year-1. The position of the lake with respect to topography Becht et al. (2002) calibrate a water balance model and other lakes plays an dominant role in the for Lake Naivasha simulating the monthly water regional hydrogeology. In general the lakes at the levels from 1932 to 2000 and derive a groundwater topographic high elevation are fresh through an outflow is 55 m3 year-1 outflow of groundwater (eg. Naivasha) and lakes in the low parts act as the final collector (eg. Magadi). 8 The relative position of the lakes will thus govern the South to the deep regional (geothermal) aquifer. regional flow patterns, where Naivasha constitutes Such a deep flow system could also feed lake the main recharge area and Magadi and Bogoria and Lake Baringo. Flow further to the North Baring/Bogoria the main discharge areas. is unlikely. The deepest point of the Northern part of the rift valley is at the Logipi swamp, just South of The long-section of the rift valley topography shows Lake Turkana. the position of the lakes. In the Naivasha are elevation of the deep aquifer is known from If this area would be the terminal of groundwater geothermal wells. In this area the top of the flow towards the North, similar soda deposits as in geothermal aquifer is at approximately 1500 m asl.