Hydrogeology of Guinea

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Africa Groundwater Atlas >> Hydrogeology by country >> Hydrogeology of Guinea


This page has limited information and needs to be updated. If you have more information on the hydrogeology of Guinea, please get in touch!


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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The Africa Groundwater Atlas is hosted by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and includes information from third party sources. Your use of information provided by this website is at your own risk. If reproducing diagrams that include third party information, please cite both the Africa Groundwater Atlas and the third party sources. Please see the Terms of use for more information.

Geographical Setting

Guinea. Map developed from USGS GTOPOPO30; GADM global administrative areas; and UN Revision of World Urbanization Prospects. For more information on the map development and datasets see the geography resource page

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

Koppen Geiger Climate ZonesAverage Annual PrecipitationAverage Temperature

Average monthly precipitation for Guinea showing minimum and maximum (light blue), 25th and 75th percentile (blue), and median (dark blue) rainfall Average monthly temperature for Guinea showing minimum and maximum (orange), 25th and 75th percentile (red), and median (black) temperature Quarterly precipitation over the period 1950-2012 Monthly precipitation (blue) over the period 2000-2012 compared with the long term monthly average (red)


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


Major surface water features of Guinea. Map developed from World Wildlife Fund HydroSHEDS; Digital Chart of the World drainage; and FAO Inland Water Bodies. For more information on the map development and datasets see the surface water resource page

Soil

Soil Map of Guinea, from the European Commission Joint Research Centre: European Soil Portal. For more information on the map see the soil resource page

Land cover

Land Cover Map of Guinea, from the European Space Agency GlobCover 2.3, 2009. For more information on the map see the land cover resource page

Water statistics

1999 2001 2005 2012 2014 2015
Rural population with access to safe drinking water (%) 67.4
Urban population with access to safe drinking water (%) 92.7
Population affected by water related disease No data No data No data No data No data No data
Total internal renewable water resources (cubic metres/inhabitant/year) 17,924
Total exploitable water resources (Million cubic metres/year) 204,000
Freshwater withdrawal as % of total renewable water resources 0.2448
Renewable groundwater resources (Million cubic metres/year) 38,000
Groundwater produced internally (Million cubic metres/year) 38,000
Fresh groundwater withdrawal (primary and secondary) (Million cubic metres/year) disease No data No data No data No data No data No data
Groundwater: entering the country (total) (Million cubic metres/year) No data No data No data No data No data No data
Groundwater: leaving the country to other countries (total) (Million cubic metres/year) No data No data No data No data No data No data
Industrial water withdrawal (all water sources) (Million cubic metres/year) 56.2
Municipal water withdrawal (all water sources) (Million cubic metres/year) 224.8
Agricultural water withdrawal (all water sources) (Million cubic metres/year) 292.9
Irrigation water withdrawal (all water sources) 1 (Million cubic metres/year) 292.9
Irrigation water requirement (all water sources) 1 (Million cubic metres/year) 70.5
Area of permanent crops (ha) 700,000
Cultivated land (arable and permanent crops) (ha) 3,800,000
Total area of country cultivated (%) 15.46
Area equipped for irrigation by groundwater (ha) 460
Area equipped for irrigation by mixed surface water and groundwater (ha) disease No data No data No data No data No data No data

These statistics are sourced from FAO Aquastat. They are the most recent available information in the Aquastat database. More information on the derivation and interpretation of these statistics can be seen on the FAO Aquastat website.

Further water and related statistics can be accessed at the Aquastat Main Database.

1 More information on irrigation water use and requirement statistics


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).



Geology of Guinea at 1:5 million scale. Developed from USGS map (Persits et al. 2002). For more information on the map development and datasets see the geology resource page

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).

Hydrogeology of Guinea at 1:5million scale. For more information on how the map was developed see the hydrogeology map resource page

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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