TITLE:
Hydrogeological Characterization and Approach to a Conceptual Model of the Aquifer of the Cuvette Basin, Republic of Congo
AUTHORS:
Noida Janesia Lebela Mouakoumbat, Urbain Mbilou Gampio, Guy Moukandi Nkaya, Chesther Gatsé Ebotehouna, Armel Obami Ondon, Romain Richard Niere
KEYWORDS:
Cuvette Basin, Hydrogeology, Aquifer, Piezometric Map, Conceptual Model
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.13 No.11,
November
14,
2022
ABSTRACT: The continuous aquifers of the Congolese Cuvette
basin constitute the seat of significant water tables reversibly supplying the
Congo River basin as well as the water tables they drain. Consisting mainly of
sandy-clayey-sandstone formations, these
aquifers contain groundwater which is the main source of drinking water supply
for communities in this sector of the departments Cuvette and Cuvette-Ouest.
The need for water being more and more acute, these aquifers have been
subjected to drilling operations in order to supply drinking water to these
populations. The information obtained from these operations is data which made it possible to obtain information
relating to the lithology, the hydrogeological parameters of these aquifers and
information on the depth and on the lateral variations of the water table. The
purpose of this present work is to contribute to the hydrogeological
characterization of the aquifer of the Cuvette basin in the departments of
Cuvette and Cuvette-Ouest via data from the analysis of the technical sheets of
drillings carried out by the ASPERBRAS Company, collected at the Ministry of
Major Works and territory planning. This characterization was made using Visual
MODFLOW Flex 2015.1 software coupled with Surfer 10 software and Rock Works 17
software. The hydrogeological interpretation of the data shows that this
aquifer, whose constitution is essentially made up of sands, clayey sands and
clay, is continuous, porous and free. This composition
gives the aquifer of Cuvette basin a heterogeneous character. In addition, a
piezometric map was produced in order to indicate the direction of the water
flows which turned out to be from west to east towards the
lowest areas occupied by the valleys of the rivers and rivers. The conceptual
model shows that the depth of the aquifer deceases considerably from the Cuvette-Ouest towards the
Cuvette.