Investigation on the Hydrochemical Assessment of Groundwater Quality for Drinking, Domestic and Irrigation Purposes in Afigya Kwabre District, Ghana

The objective of the study was to contribute to and improve the understanding of the hydrochemistry
of the groundwater in aquifers in the study area and also to understand the suitability of the
groundwater for drinking, domestic and irrigation purposes. Although a lot of works on the
groundwater hydrochemistry and quality assessment have been done in Ashanti region of Ghana very
little detail work has been conducted with regard to the quality of the groundwater delivered by the
aquifers within the Districts on smaller scale. One hundred and twenty (120) groundwater samples
were taken from forty (40) boreholes from Afigya Kwabre District of Ghana to study the hydrochemical
characteristics to know the current state of the groundwater quality, the natural processes and
anthropogenic activities that affects the groundwater quality as well as the suitability of the
groundwater for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes. Methods used in this work include
groundwater sampling, laboratory analysis of samples, bi-plot techniques which were applied to the
groundwater data. The study revealed that the groundwater types in the study area are Na-Cl, Mixed
and Na-HCO3. The study also identified silicate weathering, carbonate weathering, mixing processes,
ion exchange and anthropogenic activities such as improper waste disposal and application of
agrochemicals to influence the groundwater quality in the study area. The groundwater is generally
soft and calculation of water quality index for the groundwater showed that 87.5% are suitable for
drinking purpose while 12.5% are unsuitable. Low pH, high Fe, F- and Pb are the quality concerns
observed in the groundwater. For irrigation use, the groundwater is excellent except high sodium
percent of over 60% in some samples (52.5%).