Application of geostatistical techniques to assess groundwater quality in the Lower Anayari catchment in Ghana

In this study, integrated geostatistical techniques were applied to appraise the groundwater quality for various purposes in the Lower Anayari Catchment (LAC), Ghana. Physico-chemical and trace metals were analysed for 41 groundwater samples. Groundwater in LAC was generally found to be moderately hard to fresh and the information entropy-based groundwater quality index (IEGQI) ranked approximately 80.49% of the groundwater as excellent. Partial Least square regression analysis suggests that PO43−, As, Cd and Fe are important parameters for the prediction of IEGQI values. The irrigation water quality index (IWQI) suggest that 2.44% of groundwater in LAC is suitable for moderate permeability soils, 65.85% for moderate to high permeability soils and 31.71% for moderate to high salt tolerance plants. The LSI and RSI indices rate groundwater in LAC to be aggressive water with a high probability of being corrosive to metals, depending on the levels of dissolved oxygen present.