Hydrogeological Characterization and Approach to a Conceptual Model of the Aquifer of the Cuvette Basin, Republic of Congo

Abstract

The continuous aquifers of the Congolese Cuvette basin constitute the seat of significant water tables reversibly supplying the Congo River basin as well as the water tables they drain. Consisting mainly of sandy-clayey-sandstone formations, these aquifers contain groundwater which is the main source of drinking water supply for communities in this sector of the departments Cuvette and Cuvette-Ouest. The need for water being more and more acute, these aquifers have been subjected to drilling operations in order to supply drinking water to these populations. The information obtained from these operations is data which made it possible to obtain information relating to the lithology, the hydrogeological parameters of these aquifers and information on the depth and on the lateral variations of the water table. The purpose of this present work is to contribute to the hydrogeological characterization of the aquifer of the Cuvette basin in the departments of Cuvette and Cuvette-Ouest via data from the analysis of the technical sheets of drillings carried out by the ASPERBRAS Company, collected at the Ministry of Major Works and territory planning. This characterization was made using Visual MODFLOW Flex 2015.1 software coupled with Surfer 10 software and Rock Works 17 software. The hydrogeological interpretation of the