Hydrogeology of Guinea
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Present-day Guinea was on the periphery of the ancient Ghana, Mali, Songhai and Fulani empires between the 7th and 19th centuries, and its coastal zone, along with much of west Africa, was subject to the slave trade from the 16th century. It became a French colony in the 1890s, and the present-day national boundaries date from negotiations between France, Britain, Portugal and Liberia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since independence in 1958 as the Republic of Guinea, the country has experienced periodic armed conflict, attempted and actual coups, civil and political unrest and contested elections. From the late 1980s, Guinea received a large influx of refugees as a result of wars in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia, exacerbating internal tensions. The 2014 Ebola outbreak also affected Guinea significantly.
Guinea’s economy is dependent on agriculture and mineral production. The agricultural sector, which employs 80% of the labour force, is diverse, reflecting the diverse geography, with cattle herding and cultivation of savanna crops place in highland areas, and commercial crops including fruit, coffee, groundnuts and palm oil in lowland areas. Rice is the main food crop grown for domestic consumption, and is also imported to meet demand. Forest products, mainly timber, are also important economically. The country has potentially vast mineral resources, particularly bauxite, gold and diamonds. Mineral exports comprise the bulk of export revenue, but the sector has not been fully developed, linked to poor infrastructure, continuing political instability and corruption. The 2014 Ebola outbreak was another serious crisis that diverted resources towards basic humanitarian needs. There is large hydroelectric power potential, with the sources of three major rivers - the Gambia, the Senegal and the Niger - in Guinea. Fishing and manufacturing are also important industries.
Most of Guinea receives high but seasonal rainfall, and the country’s overall water resources are abundant. However, away from the major rivers, dry season surface water resources are scarce. Much of the population relies on groundwater for domestic water supplies, in rural and poorer urban areas.
Compilers
Dr Kirsty Upton and Brighid Ó Dochartaigh, British Geological Survey, UK
Dr Imogen Bellwood-Howard, Institute of Development Studies, UK
Please cite this page as: Upton, K, Ó Dochartaigh, B É and Bellwood-Howard, I. 2018.
Bibliographic reference: Upton, K. & Ó Dochartaigh, B.É. 2016. Africa Groundwater Atlas: Hydrogeology of Guinea. British Geological Survey. Accessed [date you accessed the information]. https://earthwise.bgs.ac.uk/index.php/Hydrogeology_of_Guinea
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Geographical Setting
General
Capital city | Conakry |
Region | Western Africa |
Border countries | Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone |
Total surface area* | 245,860 km2 (24,586,000 ha) |
Total population (2015)* | 12,609,000 |
Rural population (2015)* | 8,020,000 (64%) |
Urban population (2015)* | 4,589,000 (76%) |
UN Human Development Index (HDI) [highest = 1] (2014)* | 0.4113 |
* Source: FAO Aquastat
Climate
More information on average rainfall and temperature for each of the climate zones in Guinea can be seen at the Guinea climate page.
These maps and graphs were developed from the CRU TS 3.21 dataset produced by the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, UK. For more information see the climate resource page.
Surface water
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Soil
Land cover
Geology
The geology map shows a simplified version of the geology at a national scale. More information is available in the report UN (1988) (see References section, below).
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Hydrogeology
The hydrogeology map below shows a simplified version of the type and productivity of the main aquifers at a national scale (see the hydrogeology map resource page for more details).
More information on the hydrogeology of Guinea is available in the report United Nations (1988) (see References section, below).
Groundwater management
The country has recently adopted programmes for improving water services: the National Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (NDWSSP) and the National Strategy for Development of Public Water Services in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas (SNDSPE). These programmes aim to address the current situation where local authorities have low capacity to implement their responsibility for water service projects in rural and semi-urban areas; and water services are largely being developed in a fragmented project-based way (African Development Bank Group 2013).
There is a central database with information on more than 16,000 water points - mainly boreholes - based on data from different projects that were supervised by the national water authority, but the data are not all well organised. It does, however, include more than 1000 borehole geological logs that are easy to access.
Transboundary aquifers
For further information about transboundary aquifers, please see the Transboundary aquifers resources page.
References
References with more information on the geology and hydrogeology of Guinea can be accessed through the Africa Groundwater Literature Archive.
African Development Bank Group. 2013. Institutional support for the national water point management service (SNAPE), Republic of Guinea. OWAS Department, December 2013.
United Nations. 1988. Groundwater in North and West Africa: Guinea. United Nations Department of Technical Cooperation for Development and Economic Commission for Africa, Natural Resources/Water Series No. 18.
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