WATER RESOURCES POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT OF SIMADA WEREDA WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO GROUND WATER. A CASE STUDY OF BIJENA- MUYE RIVER CATCHMENTS, SOUTH G.ONDAR, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to assess the available water resources potential of Simada Wereda for sustainable development. In this paper the annual groundwater recharge, surface runoff, groundwater returns as base flow, spatial variability of hydrochemistry, groundwater potential zones and annual water budget of the area were identified. Rainfall was generated using Theissen polygon method using available data from meteorological stations, and stream flow data was generated by down scaling the Ribb river flow data using area ratio method. The hydrochemistry of the study area was identified using field and laboratory analysis methods. In the laboratory major cations and anions were identified. In terms of water quality all waters analyzed are in the standards of World Health Organization (WHO) and Ethiopian Standard Authority. In this work the annual rainfall, actual evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, recharge (soil moisture surplus) and the change in groundwater flow were 1053.0mm, 667.0mm, 935mm, . and 7mm respectively. The hydrochemistry study shows that t . '\" ;a}� v,;. J , ion in the chemical and physical properties' of water. J. S,, �e�_p;rature, . aci EC increase from highland areas to low land areas. s1· �dton)b.e-��p.�t'.�al rei�is. all water types are HC03 except the thermal sprin · . ':;'�ch iSillj��y.CI ty.pe}nd Ca-Ma and Na are the major cations. From gro t:iw\ter point of )Jiew/Jour general potential zones are delineated by combining t '7,e,��- · logy,