APPLICATION OF THE PQWT-S300 WATER DETECTOR IN MAPPING GROUNDWATER FOR ABSTRACTION

Abstract

The technological potential of PQWT-s300 water detector was harnessed to investigate places for profitable drilling of water borehole in 2 locations at Umuogele-Umuakwu community in Isiala Ngwa North, Southern Nigeria. The inbuilt data processing and analysis tools and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen of the PQWT device facilitated a less laborious, precise and fast field data collection and analysis process, with a probing depth of 300m for a 100m profile length. The study area which falls within the Benin geologic Formation has high water production capacity upon considering the PQWT graph and Profile maps; particularly with the intercalation of the ‘blue’ and ‘green’ coloration which represents soft rocks rich in water, and soft rocks containing water moderately. The ‘yellow/orange/red’ colors are the hard rocks which are heavily fractured and weathered, resulting in secondary porosity which makes them water bearing. It was discovered that water can easily be abstracted before 60m depth in location 1 and less than 90m depth in location 2. However, exploration at both locations will most often require drilling through hard rocks using drill bits at some point for a deep sustaining well. Furthermore, the interplay of the water bearing soft rocks and the fractured water bearing hard rocks defines the dendritic groundwater flow pattern as seen in Figure 1. The perennial survival of the Iyi-ukwu stream located less than 100m away from both locations also shows that there is a good network of ground waterways around the area.