Improving drilling success rate in the Afar and Tigray regions

Groundwater is an important source of water supply in Ethiopia. In order to improve the groundwater drilling success rate, a large-scale exploration was carried out to locate groundwater in two dry districts: the Afar and Tigray regions. This is a complex area and data are available only to a limited extent. That is why the researchers frequently used satellite data to scale up the field observations to represent the entire area. This was combined with a wide variety of analyses resulting from the Groundwater Analysis (GWA) method that was developed as part of this project.

Several locations were identified, specifying where one can expect to find local groundwater resources in shallow groundwater aquifers and fracture zones. In addition, a number of river beds with water accumulating in the subsurface were identified as promising prospective locations for sustainable groundwater extraction. This project is an important part of a large-scale exploration of groundwater resources spearheaded by UNESCO in partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy, and contributes to the success of investments in groundwater in these regions.