Groundwater flow modelling of Kwa Ibo River watershed,southeastern Nigeria

Groundwater flow modelling of the Kwa Ibo River watershed in Abia State of Nigeria is presented in this paper with the aim of assessing the degree of interaction between the Kwa Ibo River and the groundwater regime of the thick sandy aquifer. The local geology of the area comprises the Quaternary to recent Benin Formation. Potential aquifer zones that were delineated earlier using geoelectrical resistivity soundings and borehole data for the area formed the basis for groundwater flow modelling. The watershed has been modelled with a grid of 65 rows by 43 columns and with two layers. Lateral inflow from the north has been simulated with constant heads at the Government College, Umuahia, and outflow at Usaka Elegu in the south. The Kwa Ibo River traverses the middle of the watershed from north to south. The river‐stage data at Umudike, Amawom, Ntalakwu and Usaka Elegu have been used for assigning surface water levels and riverbed elevations in the model. Permeability distribution was found to vary from 3 to 14·5 m day^?1. Natural recharge due to rainfall formed the main input to the aquifer system, and abstraction from wells was the main output. A steady‐state groundwater flow simulation was carried out and calibrated against the May 1980 water levels using 26 observation wells. The model computations have converged after 123 iterations. Under the transient‐state calibration, the highest rainfall (and hence groundwater recharge) over the 10‐year study period was recorded in 1996, whereas the lowest was recorded in 1991. The computed groundwater balance of 55 274 m³ day^?1 was comparable to that estimated from field investigations. Results from the modelling show that abstraction is much less than groundwater recharge. Hence there is the possibility for additional groundwater exploitation in the watershed through drilling of boreholes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.