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The Volta River Basin The Volta River Basin An assessment of groundwater need by Martin Jäger & Sven Menge Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) April 2012 Page 1 Page 2 Acronyms AGW-net African Groundwater Network AMCOW African Ministerial Conference on Water BAF Burkina Faso BGR Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CT Continental Terminal DANIDA Danish International Development Agency GEF Global Environmental Fund GIS Geographic Information System GLOWA Global Water Cycle GW Groundwater GWP Global Water Partnership GWRM Groundwater Resources Management HQ Headquarter IRD Institut de Recherche et Dévéloppement IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management L/RBO Lake/River Basin Organization L/R/ABO Lake/River Association of Basin Organizations MC Member Country Mamsl above mean sea level Mgt Management NBA Niger Basin Authority NE North East NFP National Focal Point NGO Non-Governmental Organization VOLTA-HYCOS Volta Hydrological Cycle Observation System NW North West SE South East SIDA Swedish International Development Agency SP Strategic Plan SW South West SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats TBA Transboundary Aquifer UNDP United Nations Development Program UNEP United Nations Environmental Program VBA Volta Basin Authority WRM Water Resources Management Page 3 Contents Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................. 3 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Objectives ........................................................................................................................................ 5 3. Topography...................................................................................................................................... 5 4. Vegetation and Climate ................................................................................................................... 9 5. Geology .......................................................................................................................................... 12 6. Groundwater and Groundwater Governance ............................................................................... 14 7. Socio-Economy .............................................................................................................................. 17 8. Interviews ...................................................................................................................................... 18 9. SWOT-Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 18 9.1 Strengths......................................................................................................................................... 18 9.2 Weaknesses .................................................................................................................................... 18 9.3 Opportunities ................................................................................................................................. 19 9.4 Threats ............................................................................................................................................ 19 10. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 19 11. Recommendations..................................................................................................................... 19 12. References ................................................................................................................................. 21 Appendix 1 : Tables of basic data for the L/R/ABO Appendix 2: List of interviewees Appendix 3 : Transcripts of interviews Page 4 1. Introduction The African Groundwater Network (AGW-net), the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) and SPLASH have agreed on the need of bringing groundwater on the political agenda by promoting the integration of groundwater management into the mandate of Lake and/or River Basin Organizations (L/RBO). The idea is to assess by interviewing the staff of the L/RBO to what extend groundwater is taken into account and what kind of actions is needed to integrate groundwater in the activities of the respective L/RBO. 2. Objectives The general objective of the study is, based on the results of the consultations to selected L/RBOs, to develop targeted and prioritized recommendations for improving groundwater management in the L/RBOs. This report summarizes the physical, (hydro-) geological, socio-economic and environmental conditions of the Volta River Basin as well as the water governance policy of the Volta Basin Authority, which is one of the nine L/RBOs selected for consultations. 3. Topography The Volta River Basin 1 is located centrally in the West African region between the latitudes 5°N to 14°N and the longitudes 2°E to 5°W. It stretches over a surface area of approximately 414.000 km² and the territories of 6 African countries as following: Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Côte Ivoire and Ghana. Its average runoff into the sea is estimated at 38 km³ (Kasei, 2009). 1 The Volta River Basin will be called hereafter Volta basin, while the geologic defined Volta Basin as referred to under the later chapter Geology will be called sedimentary Volta Basin. Page 5 Fig. 1 Location of Volta Basin (Source: GLOWA-Volta Project) It is a generally low relief basin with elevations ranging between 0 m to 920 m above mean sea level (mamsl) and has accordingly a mean elevation of 257 mamsl. The low relief coincides with low channel grades. Page 6 Fig. 2 Topography of Volta Basin Generally the Volta Basin Catchment is divided up into 4 sub catchments in accordance to its main rivers as ensues: (1) Mouhoun (Black Volta) (2) Nakambé (White Volta) (3) Oti River and (4) Lower Volta The River Black Volta has its source in the SW of Burkina Faso (BAF). First , it follows a flow path towards the NE before turning to a southward direction in central western BAF, then following the border line between Ghana and BAF as well as between Côte Ivoire and Ghana further to the south and finally diverts to the east towards Lake Volta. The sub catchment with its runoff of 243 m³/s contributes 18% to the total flow into Lake Volta (Kasei, 2009). The White Volta starts its flow path in northern BAF and is directed southeasterly towards Ghana, where it meanders through the Upper East and Northern Region with its low lying terrain at about 120 mamsl and ecologic savannah zone before entering into Lake Volta. Its sub catchment shows a runoff of 272 m³/s and contributes 20% to the total flow into Lake Volta (Kasei, 2009). The building of the Bagre Dam in 1993 with a surface area of 33.120 km² significantly changed the flow regime. The River Oti having its source area in the Atakora range in NW Benin flows first along the border between Benin and BAF, and then crosses N Togo terrain before following the Togo/ Ghanaian border and entering into Lake Volta. The Oti catchment constitutes the smallest of the sub catchments with a surface area of 72.778 km², but covering 40% of Togolese terrain (Kasei 2009). Its topography is largely steep as parts of the mountain ranges Atakora and Akwapim more or less Page 7 parallel to the Oti River oriented, constituting a part of it. The runoff from this sub catchment reaches 254 m³/s, thus it contributes 25% to the total flow into Lake Volta (Kasei, 2009). The Lower Volta sub catchment is located largely in Ghana and only with a small part in Togo between the two sub catchments of the Mouhoun and Nakambé. It receives surface water flows from Togo and Ghana. In its environments the Lake Volta ³ is situated, one of the largest men made rivers worldwide with a surface area of 8500 km² and a capacity of 148 km (Kasei 2009). It developed after the building of the Akasombo Dam in 1961 with its intended hydropower generation of 900 MW. Table 1: Major river system of the Volta Basin (Barry et al., 2005) Volta Basin System Area (km2) Black Volta 149,015 White Volta 104,752 Oti River 72,778 Lower Volta 62,651 Total 389,196 The water resources of the basin are quite vulnerable considering that the relation between total volume of rainfall and total annual discharge are tightly connected. It was calculated that a significant (more than 50%) runoff only takes place if more than 340 km³ of rainfall are received within the basin. Therefore a small change in rainfall will cause a much larger change in discharge (Andreini, 2000). For the Akasombo dam a continuous decline in discharge could be remarked over the last 30 years with less than 1000 m³/s. Fig. 3 Annual discharge series of the Volta River at Senchi before and after the construction of the Akosombo Dam (Mamdouh, 2002) Page 8 4. Vegetation and Climate The vegetation in the basin ranges from humid tropical forests near the Atlantic coast in the S, dry forest to savannah with short grass at the desert border in the North. Due to its location, the Volta Basin covers the equatorial forest zone, Guinea and Sudan Savannah and a small fraction of Sahel (see Fig. 4). Fig. 4 Climate Zones of the Volta Basin (Barry et al, 2005) Landmann using amongst other Landsat ETM+ imagery (see
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