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Geologic factors controlling groundwater chemistry in the coastal aquifer system of Douala/Cameroon: implication for groundwater system functioning

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Abstract

Douala city, located in the littoral province of Cameroon, receives abundant rainfall quantities due to its geographical position in the Gulf of Guinea and bears considerable surface water and groundwater resources. Due to socioeconomic development and rapid demographic growth in the city and its consequences of unplanned urbanization and improper sanitation system, these water resources are poorly protected and managed. Streams in the Wouri watershed receive large amounts of wastewater discharge, and hundreds of boreholes have been drilled into the aquifer system without any management plan. A detailed hydrodynamic and hydrogeochemistry study in Douala town and its environs was conducted to get a better insight into the groundwater system functioning in order to provide information for the sustainable management and protection of the groundwater resource. Two field campaigns were carried out with 187 samples collected and analyzed for major ions, stable isotopes (18O, 2H), and tritium 3H. The results of the sampling have shown that the weathering of silicate minerals is the dominant geochemical process affecting groundwater chemistry in this system. However, acid rainfall in the humid climate has also caused carbonate mineral dissolution, amorphous silica deposition, and ion exchange reactions to occur in aquifers in the region. The various water types identified were categorized into four major clusters C1 to C4, based on the major ion composition and the local hydrogeological conditions. Environmental isotope data reveal that modern-to-submodern waters occur in the phreatic Quaternary/Mio-Pliocene and Oligocene/Upper Eocene aquifers, respectively. These results corroborate with the conceptual model built where modern groundwater types indicated silicate mineral weathering and calcite dissolution (C1 and C2), whereas submodern groundwater mostly showed silica deposition, ion exchange, and, to a lesser extent, carbonate mineral dissolution (C3 and C4). This improved understanding of the aquifer system functioning is essential to provide a reasonable basis for effective control measures and sustainable water management.

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Acknowledgements

The first author is very grateful to the financial support from the French cooperation (SCAC) and UNESCO-ANESIVFW. She also thanks the UCAD hydrochemistry laboratory and the Institute of Groundwater Ecology (Helmholtz Zentrum München/Germany) for carrying out the analyses. She would like to thank Prof. Pape Malick NGOM, University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, for reviewing this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon

    Huguette C. Emvoutou, Béatrice Ketchemen Tandia, Suzanne Ngo Boum Nkot, Rodrigue C. S. Ebonji & Yvon B. Nlend

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Yaounde I, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Georges E. Ekodeck

  3. Institute of Groundwater Ecology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstaedter Landster. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Christine Stumpp

  4. Institute of Hydraulics and Rural Water Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

    Christine Stumpp

  5. Department of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059, Kraków, Poland

    Piotr Maloszewski

  6. Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal

    Huguette C. Emvoutou & Serigne Faye

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  1. Huguette C. Emvoutou
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  2. Béatrice Ketchemen Tandia
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Correspondence to Serigne Faye.

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Emvoutou, H.C., Ketchemen Tandia, B., Ngo Boum Nkot, S. et al. Geologic factors controlling groundwater chemistry in the coastal aquifer system of Douala/Cameroon: implication for groundwater system functioning. Environ Earth Sci 77, 219 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7400-z

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