Partnership for Pastoralist Development

Association

HARGEDEB TOWN GROUNDWATER

INVESTIGATION

GEOPHYSICAL REPORT

ZH Consult
Tel.: +251911396873
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
E-mail: zhcon2013@gmail.com
sollankoken@gmail.com

November 2020
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Hargedeb Town Groundwater Investigation Geophysical Report PAPDA

Partnership for Pastoralist Development

Association

Consulting Service for

HARGEDEB TOWN GROUNDWATER

INVESTIGATION

GEOPHYSICAL REPORT
November 2020

ZH Consult
Tel.: +251911396873
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
E-mail: zhcon2013@gmail.com
sollankoken@gmail.com

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Hargedeb Town Groundwater Investigation Geophysical Report PAPDA

Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS..............................................................................................................................II
LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................................II
LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................................................II
ACRONYMS................................................................................................................................................III
CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................1
1.1 BACKGROUND...............................................................................................................................1
1.2 PROJECT OBJECTIVES...................................................................................................................1
1.3 SCOPE OF THE WORK....................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER 2 : PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA....................................................................1
2.1 LOCATION AND ACCESSIBILITY....................................................................................................1
2.2 PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE AREA......................................................................................................2
2.3 GENERAL GEOLOGY AND HYDROGEOLOGY OF THE AREA..........................................................2
CHAPTER 3 HYDRO-GEOPHYSICS.........................................................................................................3
3.1 GENERAL......................................................................................................................................3
3.2 SURVEY LAYOUT AND VOLUME OF WORK..................................................................................3
3.3 INSTRUMENTATION AND FIELD PROCEDURE.................................................................................3
3.4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION.......................................................................................4
3.5 CONCLUDING REMARKS...............................................................................................................8
CHAPTER 4 : CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................9
4.1 CONCLUSIONS...............................................................................................................................9
4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS.....................................................................................................................9
ANNEX 1: VES RAW DATA......................................................................................................................10
ANNEX 1: PROPOSED WELL DESIGN BASED ON VES INTERPRETATION................................10

List of Figures

FIGURE 1: PHYSIOGRAPHIC SETUP OF THE AREA................................................................................................2

FIGURE 2: EXPOSURE OF BASALT AND LIMESTONE CLIFF IN THE BACKGROUND................................................3
FIGURE 3: VES SURVEY EQUIPMENT ACCESSESSORY INSTRUMENTS AND TOOLS..............................................4
FIGURE 4: SEMI-LOGARITHMIC PLOT OF RAW VES DATA..................................................................................5
FIGURE 5: INTERPRETATION RESULT OF VES-1..................................................................................................6
FIGURE 6: INTERPRETATION RESULT OF VES-2..................................................................................................6
FIGURE 7: INTERPRETATION RESULT OF VES-3..................................................................................................7
FIGURE 8: PSEUDO AND GEO-ELCTRIC SECTION ALONG VES1,VES2 AND VES3..............................................8

List of Tables

TABLE 1: LOCATIONS OF VES POINTS................................................................................................................3

TABLE 2: INTERPRETED PARAMETERS AND INFERRED GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS..............................................7

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Acronyms

PAPDA Partnership for Pastoralist Development Association

VES Vertical Electrical Sounding

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Hargedeb Town Groundwater Investigation Geophysical Report PAPDA

CHAPTER: 1Introduction

1.1 BACKGROUND
ZH Consult PLC has signed an agreement with PAPDA (Partnership for Pastoralist
Development Association) to undertake geophysical survey for water source investigation for
Hargedeb Town in Liban Zone, Somali Region. An undertaking was already been conducted to
drill a borehole for the town which was found dry. As a result, another investigation and site
hunting was sought for borehole drilling.

This report is prepared as per the agreement signed between the Partnership for Pastoralist
Development Association and ZH Consult PLC. Therefore, in response to the above-mentioned
aims, ZH has mobilized a team of Hydrogeologist and Geophysicist to the woreda for water
sources assessment and submitted the output of the work in this report.

1.2 PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the assignment is to investigate groundwater sources availability for
Hargedeb Town water supply through drilling of borehole using geophysics (VES) as a tool.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE WORK

 Conduct vertical electrical sounding (VES); including data acquisition, data processing and
interpretation and compilation of final report for the two boreholes.
 Conduct VES constituting of data acquisition, processing and interpretation and compilation of
final report for two boreholes.
 Identify potential groundwater occurrence sites and pinpoint borehole locations
 Describe subsurface lithological variations;
 Determine the thickness of the rocks that might encounter during drilling;
 Characterize the depth of weathering and fracturing of rocks which could hold groundwater based
on their resistivity signatures.
 Estimate the depth to the groundwater table as well as aquifer thickness;
 Delineate locations of tectonic structures associated with the rock units that serve as conduits for
groundwater to flow into or out of the aquifers.
 Recommend the most prominent sites for borehole drilling.

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CHAPTER: 2PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA

2.1 LOCATION AND ACCESSIBILITY

Hargedeb Town is located in Gorobekeksa Woreda, Liban Zone of the Somali Region. It is
accessible along the Addis Ababa-Robe asphalt road for 442 km and along all-weather road to
the Hargedeb town for 160 km.

2.2 PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE AREA

Hargedeb Town is situated in the Genale-Dawa Basin, and the basin’s formation has influence
on the geomorphological make-up of the study area. Morphological feature of the area is a part
of the Eastern Ethiopian plateau. The terrain is characterized by plain land, elevated
escarpments of recharge area, mountains, and hills. Broadly, the area is consisting of main
physiographic regions, namely, mountainous ridge and associated valleys, valley plain and
warped plateau. The lower plain of the project area is generally characterized by flat
topography mostly underlain by diverse Mesozoic formation and quaternary sediments.

Figure 1: Physiographic setup of the area

2.3 GENERAL GEOLOGY AND HYDROGEOLOGY OF THE AREA

The main rocks that make the geology of the project area are mainly sedimentary rocks. The
major sedimentary rock in the area is limestone which are cliff forming. Shale is also observed.
These rocks usually have primary and secondary porosities that are good for groundwater

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movement and storage. Therefore, they are good from hydrogeological point of view in this
regard.

Alluvial deposit reworked from various rocks ranging in various sizes form the stream
channels. Basalt is found on cliff tops and erosional and weathering remnants of vesicular
basalt is observed at a few places along the Bokol valley (Figure 2).

…
Figure 2: Exposure of basalt and limestone cliff in the background

CHAPTER: 3HYDRO-GEOPHYSICS

3.1 GENERAL
Geophysics is the study of the earth with special reference to the study of the structure and
composition of the subsurface layers. It is the art of applying the physical sciences to the study
of the structure and composition of the subsurface layers.

The main objectives are:

 To determine the degree of weathering and fracturing of the subsurface formation

 To determine the saturated zone of the subsurface formation
 To determine the nature of the subsurface formation and structural set up of the formation
 To determine the thickness and depth of the aquifer

 To locate the groundwater potential site and estimate the depth of drilling

3.2 SURVEY LAYOUT AND VOLUME OF WORK

The Schlumberger electrodes configuration with maximum current electrodes separation of
1500 meters was used in all investigation sites. Locations of VES points are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Locations of VES points

VES ID UTM coordinates (Adindan Zone 37)
Easting (m) Northing (m) Elevation (m)
VES-1 0728589 0688641 859
VES-2 0726107 0689569 835
VES-3 0726569 0688235 838

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3.3 INSTRUMENTATION AND FIELD PROCEDURE

In electrical resistivity surveying technique, a known electrical current is injected into the
ground between two electrodes called current electrodes. The potential (voltage) of the
electrical field resulting from the application of the current is measured between two additional
electrodes called potential electrodes and apparent resistivity of the ground is calculated. The
separation between the current electrodes determines the investigation depth.

Vertical Electrical Sounding survey measures vertical changes in the electrical properties of
subsurface materials. The electrode spacing used for resistivity sounding is variable and the
depth of investigation increases as the electrode spacing increases. The Schlumberger array is
mostly used for VES surveys because of its logistic simplicity. That is, in the Schlumberger
electrode configuration, the potential electrodes are occasionally moved and make this spread
convenient to acquire data promptly.

Schlumberger electrode configuration: A and B current electrodes, M and N potential electrodes

For the present survey, Schlumberger electrodes configuration with maximum current
electrodes separation of 1000 m was used. The instrument used for data acquisition is STING
Earth Resistivity Meter (Figure 3) which is state-of-the-art resistivity data acquisition system.
Sites for Vertical Electrical Soundings (VES) were selected based on the field checks and
descriptions. In order to ensure that the data is of adequate quality, apparent resistivities against
half-current electrode spacing (AB/2) were plotted during data acquisition to make corrections
whenever errors were encountered. Field data were properly documented.

During data acquisition, the ground was dry however, ground contact resistance is low, less
than one kilo Ωs and no resistive ground was encountered.

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Figure 3: VES survey equipment accessessory instruments and tools

3.4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

The acquired apparent resistivity data were plotted and initial layer parameters, resistivity and
thickness, were estimated. Using estimated parameters, survey data were interpreted using
professional resistivity inversion software (IPI2win) that provides thicknesses and resistivity
values of geoelectric layers. However, it is noted that a measured sounding curve is basically
related with many equivalent models and resolution decreases with increasing depth. Hence,
available geological information should be incorporated to minimize ambiguities in the
interpretation.

Figure 4 shows the plot of the VES raw data on semi-logarithmic paper.

VES INTERPRETATION ON SEMI LOG PAPER

300

250
Resistivity (Ohm-m)

200

150

100

50

0
1 10
AB/2 (m)

Figure 4: Semi-logarithmic plot of raw VES data

A. Analysis and Interpretation of VES-1

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VES-1 was conducted along local seasonal stream which starts from the east flowing westward
at UTM Coordinate of 0728589 m Easing and 0688641 m Northing. The VES signature
displays five (5) layers as shown in Figure 5. The first layer with a resistivity value of 292 Ω-m
with a thickness of about 1.22 m is the top most part of the surface, which is dry alluvial
deposit while the second layer with a resistivity signature of 9.27 Ω-m and thickness of about
2.85 m is interpreted as slightly wet alluvial deposit. The third resistivity horizon with the
resistivity value of 17.4 Ω-m and thickness of about 84.9 m is attributed to highly fractured
limestone, which is probably wet (with moisture). On the other hand, the fourth resistivity
horizon or layer with resistivity value of 123 Ω-m with a thickness of 87 m is attributed to
slightly fractured limestone while the fifth and the last layer with resistivity value of 0.332 Ω-m
is interpreted as shale.

Figure 5: Interpretation result of VES-1

B. Analysis and Interpretation of VES-2

VES-2 on the other hand was conducted along the major stream course (Bokol Valley plain) at
UTM Coordinate of 0726107 m Easting and 0689569 m Northing. As shown in Figure 6, the
VES-2 signature displays five (5) layers. The first layer with a resistivity value of 128 Ω-m and
thickness of about 0.8 m is the top most part of the surface, which is dry alluvial deposit, while
the second layer with a resistivity signature of 12.3 Ω-m and thickness of about 7.8 m is
interpreted as slightly wet alluvial deposit. The third resistivity horizon displays resistivity
value of 99.0 Ω-m and thickness of about 61.8 m, which is attributed to saturated fractured
limestone. The fourth resistivity layer with resistivity value of 5.8 Ω-m and thickness of about
76.6 m is probably highly fractured and weathered limestone. Finally, the fifth and last layer
with resistivity value of 3689 Ω-m and infinite thickness is interpreted massive rock (probably
massive limestone).

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Figure 6: Interpretation result of VES-2

C. Analysis and Interpretation of VES-3

VES-3 was conducted along the same stream course of VES-2 but downstream at UTM
Coordinate of 0726569 m Easting and 0688235 m Northing. It is also located at about 1.2 km
east of the existing and functional Hajeto Borehole. As shown in Figure 7, the VES-3 signature
displayed six (6) layers. The first layer with a resistivity value of 32.8 Ω-m and thickness of
about 0.75 m is the top dry alluvial deposit. Next, the second layer with a resistivity signature
of 99.3 Ω-m with thickness of about 1.05 m is alluvial deposit with coarse size (boulders). The
third resistivity horizon displays that respond the resistivity value of 22.8 Ω-m with a thickness
of about 24.9 m is attributed to the top highly fractured and weathered limestone with moisture.
On the other hand, the fourth resistivity layer with resistivity value of 38.8 Ω-m and thickness
of 34.5 m is attributed to saturated fractured limestone. Finally, the fifth layer with resistivity
value of 12.2 Ω-m and thickness of about 82.7 m is attributed to saturated and highly fractured
and weathered limestone, while the sixth layer with resistivity value of 66.1 Ω-m is interpreted
as saturated fractured limestone (Main Aquifer).

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Figure 7: Interpretation result of VES-3

Table 2 is the geological inference based on the resisitivity signature.

Table 2: Interpreted parameters and inferred geological conditions

VES Layer Resistivity Thickness Depth Assumed geological/ Hydrogeological conditions
ID (Ω-m) (m) (m)
VES- 1 292 1.22 1.22 Dry alluvial deposit
1 2 9.27 2.85 4.07 Slightly wet alluvial deposit
3 17.4 84.9 88.9 Highly fractured limestone (probably wet)
4 123 87 176 Slightly fractured limestone
5 0.332 - - Shale
VES- 1 128 0.8 0.8 Dry alluvial deposit
2 2 12.3 7.8 8.6 Slightly wet alluvial deposit
3 99 61.8 70.4 Saturated fractured limestone
4 5.8 76.6 147 Highly fractured and weathered limestone
5 3689 - - Massive rock (probably massive limestone)
VES- 1 32.8 0.8 0.8 The top dry alluvial deposit
3 2 99.3 1.1 1.9 Alluvial deposit with coarse size (boulders)ay
3 22.8 23.1 24.9 Top highly fractured and weathered limestone with
moisture
4 38.8 34.5 59.4 Saturated fractured limestone
5 12.2 82.7 142 Saturated and highly fractured and weathered
limestone
6 66.1 - - Saturated fractured limestone (Main Aquifer)

Figure 8 is the geoelectric section along the lines connecting all the VES points. The section
portrays moderate to high resistivity formations on the upper part, attributed to dry alluvial
deposits extending under all VES points.

Highly fractured and weathered limestone with wetness or saturation is observed under all VES
points and its resistivity response indicates occurrence of groundwater.

The bottom layer with resistivity of 66 Ω-m is (fracture limestone) is the possible groundwater
holding formation (Main Aquifer).

Figure 8: Pseudo and geo-elctric section along VES1,VES2 and VES3

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3.5 CONCLUDING REMARKS

Three Vertical Electrical Sounding surveys were conducted in Bokol Valley some 10 km away
from Hargedeb Town at points selected based on field checks to evaluate the groundwater
potential in the areas and to propose borehole water source site for Hargedeb Town. The
Schlumberger array with maximum current electrodes separation of 1000 m is enough to probe
in excess of 300 m depth. During data acquisition, there was no problem of contact resistance
and good quality data were acquired from all sites. The acquired data were analyzed using
appropriate software, and subsurface strata were identified and occurrences of groundwater
have been indicated based on resistivity signatures.

In all the VES sites, fractured and weathered limestone are anticipated under all VES points
and their resistivity response indicate occurrence of groundwater. However, the third VES
(VES-3) which is strategically located on the downstream side of the major stream course (also
assumed the path along which the major groundwater flows) and downstream of the productive
borehole has shown good signature. In this VES, the bottom layer has shown resistivity of 66
Ω-m is (fracture limestone) is the possible groundwater holding formation (Main Aquifer).

It is understood that there is deep fracturing of limestone rocks, which could be favorable for
groundwater storage. Based on VES data analysis, these fractured rocks have been identified
and well site have been pinpointed and proposed to be drilled at VES-3. The following points
are worth noted.

 The anticipated optimum drilling depth is 200 to 250 m.

 However, the supervising geologist should decide the actual depth to be drilled based on the
lithological units encountered and volume of water obtained.

CHAPTER: 4Conclusions and Recommendations

4.1 CONCLUSIONS
ZH Consult PLC has signed an agreement with PAPDA to undertake groundwater investigation
survey with geophysical method by application of Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) for
Hargedeb Town. Following contract signing, the firm has mobilized a team of Hydrogeologist
and Geophysicist to the site to undertake filed work.

Three Vertical Electrical Sounding surveys were conducted in Bokol Valley to propose
borehole water source site for Hargedeb Town. The potential VES site proposed for the
indicated purpose is at VES-3. Two aquifers might be possible both at shallower depth of 60 m
as highly fractured limestone could contain shallow groundwater as resistivity signatures (38.8
Ω-m) indicate favorable geological formation for groundwater occurrence. The other aquifer

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with resistivity of 66.1 Ω-m is a deep aquifer anticipated to be penetrated from the depth of 140
m, and it is expected to be fractured limestone, which may encounter regional groundwater
flow.

4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are forwarded based on the assessment work and

 It is recommended to drill a borehole with the depth from 200 m to 250 m.

 The recommended drilling site is at VES-3 (X= 0726569 mE and Y = 0688235 mN). UTM
Coordinates and Adindan Datum shall be used.
 The supervising geologist shall decide the actual depth to be drilled based on the lithological units
encountered and volume of water obtained. If shallow groundwater with sufficient yield is
obtained, the drilling progress can be stopped.
 Proper lithological sample collection at fixed interval and description of the same is recommended;
further, testing the physical water parameters of the groundwater is important during drilling.
 It is recommended that drilling of the borehole shall be with DTH (Down the Hole Hammer with
percussion) with air method, and mud system of drilling should not be employed as fractured
aquifer is anticipated and can be clogged with mud.

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Annex 1: VES Raw Data

AB/2 (m) 1.5 2.1 3 4.2 6 9 13.5 20 20 30 30 45 66 100 150 150 220 220 330 500
14.9
VES-1 Res. (Ωm) 242.2 147.8 94.23 41.87 17.41 13.93 15.4 15.19
4
14.19 17.25 17.93 20.82 18.25 16.64 28.82 30.26 31.1 30.29 25.57
22.6
VES-2 Res. (Ωm) 75.01 39.8 24.14 17.53 12.93 15.16 20.3 27.39
9
30.56 34.55 41.64 47.93 60.82 47.32 48.36 47.06 48.8 27.76 37.38
25.4
VES-3 Res. (Ωm) 46.68 50.16 52.97 47.14 42.54 34.07 27.1 26.94
4
25.01 27.02 27.11 28.57 27.5 27.96 24.8 23.82 23.8 27.26 34.14

Annex 1: Proposed well design based on VES interpretation

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