Africa Groundwater Atlas Home

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Welcome to the Africa Groundwater Atlas

This Atlas is an online resource that provides an introduction to the groundwater resources of 51 African countries, and a gateway to further information. The aim of the Atlas is to improve the availability and accessibility of high quality information on groundwater in Africa, to support the safe and sustainable development and use of groundwater resources.

The Atlas includes a summary of the hydrogeology, groundwater status and groundwater management of individual countries, with links to further information through the Africa Groundwater Literature Archive; and provides supporting information on aspects of hydrogeology at a continental scale.

Hydrogeology and groundwater resources by country

Hydrogeology by country

The Hydrogeology by country section provides a profile of each of 51 countries in Africa, and a gateway to further information sources. Each country page provides a summary of the geology and hydrogeology of key aquifers, the status of groundwater resources, and groundwater management.

Contributing authors

The country profiles were prepared by the British Geological Survey (BGS) in collaboration with hydrogeologists, geologists and other groundwater experts from across Africa and beyond. The authors are cited on the relevant country pages, and details of all the contributing authors can be found here.

Supporting environmental information

For each country, the Atlas provides maps and graphs summarising information on environmental parameters that are closely linked to groundwater, including climate, hydrology, soils and land cover. The supporting geological and environmental information section provides background on and links to the data sources used to develop these maps and graphs.

Resource pages

This section provides a series of pages with additional information on key issues related to hydrogeology, groundwater resources and management in Africa.

Africa Groundwater Literature Archive

The Africa Groundwater Literature Archive is is an online database containing bibliographic references for thousands of items of literature related to groundwater in Africa. These include published and unpublished reports, journal papers, maps, books and academic theses. The full archive can be searched by country and thematic keywords; selected items can be searched by detailed location; and, where possible, links to full-text documents are provided. More information on the Africa Groundwater Literature Archive project is available here.

Background to the Africa Groundwater Atlas

Further project information

Further information on the Africa Groundwater Atlas project.

Terms of use

Terms of use for information provided in the Atlas.

Contact us

If you would like further information about the Africa Groundwater Atlas, or have groundwater information you would like to see added to the Atlas, please contact us at AfricaGWAtlas@bgs.ac.uk.