The Nabogo Project

The department secured a grant from the University of Ghana Research Fund to undertake preliminary investigations on groundwater resources and the possible implications of climate change/variability on the resource. The project, under the leadership of Prof. Sandow Mark Yidana, supported two MPhil students who are currently on the DANIDA funded Project as PhD students. In this project, the investigators analyzed groundwater recharge processes using stable isotope data and other hydrochemical tracers. Progressive evolution of infiltrating rainwater through the thickness of the vadose zone was analyzed and evapotranspiration rates were estimated through the combined use of chloride and stable isotope tracers in porewater. For the first time in the area and much of the region, transpiration rates were estimated through the soil profile, and the implications of high temperatures as predicted by some climate models in the area were evaluated.

The researchers are implementing similar strategies in other parts of the White Volta Basin and the rest of Northern Ghana.