Quality Assessment of Groundwater from Avenorfeme: Akatsi District, Ghana

An assessment of the quality of groundwater from the shallow unconfined aquifers of the Avenorfeme and surrounding villages in the Akatsi South District in the Volta Region of Ghana has been conducted. A groundwater classification scheme has been developed using water quality index (WQI) modified for the case of the study area. In calculating WQI, the following were considered, pH, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, chloride, nitrate, sulphate, total dissolved solids, and fluorides have been considered. On the basis of the computed WQI, groundwater fell within the ‘Excellent”, “Good”, “Poor” and “unsuitable for drinking” categories. This study showed that the salinity of groundwater in the area is largely attributed to mineral weathering leading to evolution of predominantly intermediate to high salinity Na-Cl water types. On basis of salinity hazard, most of the waters are not suitable for irrigation in the area. Based on total hardness of water, the groundwater in the area is permanently hard.