Title: Hydrogeological characterization and the problematic of groundwater exploration<br> in Machaze District, Manica Province - Mozambique
Student: Pedro Roberto Timba
Country of origin: Mozambique
University: Eduardo Mondlane University
Degree:  MSc (Geohydrology)
Supervisor: Dr. Elónio Muiuane and Mr Humberto Saeze
Year of registration: 2009

Ground water is a very important source of fresh water for satisfying the demand of domestic water supply, agriculture, industry and life stock in many parts of Mozambique. The rural areas of Mozambique are supplied basically by ground water and estimates indicate that current coverage rate is in the range of ca. 52 %. However, some of the provinces are now showing an improvement of the coverage in water supply due to accelerated borehole sitting and construction programs in the frame work of a 5 year program commissioned by the Mozambican government in cooperation with foreign donors such as World Bank and Unicef. This is the case of the Province of Manica, in the central part of Mozambique, with a current coverage rate in the range of 61% which is slightly above the national coverage rate (ca. 60 %). However, this tendency of improvement has been slowed in many cases by the complexity of the hydrogeology of these areas whose geology is predominantly characterized by hard rock of Precambrian age with very low porosity and permeability. The District of Machaze which is located in the southern part of the province is one of most problematic, especially in the water quality aspects, i.e. very high salinity and high depths of occurrence of ground water associated with very low precipitation rates.

It is expected that this study will contribute to the improvement of the knowledge level of the factors controlling groundwater occurrence as well as to map and characterize the most important groundwater targets in the district in order to support water supply programs. To reach this objective, a carefully field work program will be undertaken which will be combined with a compilation of existing technical information of existing boreholes. The data will be processed in a GIS environment combined with specific software such as ArcView. Geophysical data, satellite images will be incorporated where possible. It is expected that in the end of this study some recommendations will be made concerning the methodologies to be applied in the future in the borehole sitting programs.

Last Modified: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 11:46:34 SAST