Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: Geophysical Investigation of Groundwater in Oluku Village and its Environs of Edo State, Nigeria.
by Ezomo, F.O. And Akujieze, C.N

Abstract:
The need to prospect for additional ground water sources in Oluku became inevitable because of the fact that the village is the Commercial City of the State and so in order to be able to cope with ever increasing population, basic/social amenity such as water needs to be available in abundance. This prompted the researcher into this study area. Geophysical Survey was carried out in Oluku Village and its environs of Edo State, Nigeria in order to investigate possible sources of Ground water that would subsidise the few existing ones. The geophysical investigation actually entailed carrying out vertical electrical sounding techniques (VES) employing the field operation of six (06) points per decade in a Schlumberger array with a current electrode spread of 1-632m. This study revealed the existence of unconfined aquifer in the area which can be exploited to meet the basic need of the community domestically, agriculturally, and industrially by way of setting up additional pure water industry or factory in order to reduce unemployment problem. Ten (10) fairly distributed VES in Oluku Village and its environs was carried out to justify the field operation of geophysical survey. The results of the interpretation identified an unconfined aquifer as a source of ground water belonging to the Benin formation at depth of 10m to 125.0m below the sea level. The resistivities of the detected unconfined aquifer varied from 700 ohm-m to 10,000 ohm-m while its thickness varied from 5m to 65m. The recommended unconfined aquifer as a source of ground water is capable of delivering adequate supply of water to the bore-hole at perceptible rate by virtue of its thickness since it recharges rapidly. Area of probable groundwater sources have been detected for future drilling operation.

Keywords: geophysical survey, oluku vilage, vertical electrical sandy (ves), groundwater, unconfined aquifer

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