Groundwater Availability and Suitability Evaluation for Irrigated Agriculture in Mbale District
Authors: - Wanamama Goefrey 
Published: October 2023

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the availability and suitability of groundwater in Mbale district basing on potential, quality and vulnerability to support irrigated agriculture. Groundwater potential was assessed using geospatial technique through AHP model. Thematic layers were prepared namely: land use and land cover, slope, soil, rainfall, lineament density, lithology, geomorphology and drainage density. All layers were integrated using the MLC technique. Ranking of each parameter was performed using WOIA. Weights were assigned to each subject class basing on AHP results. The consistency of the outputs was tested by computation of CR and was at a reasonable acceptable level (0.029 < 0.1). Groundwater potential was delineated basing on the values of groundwater potential index. Groundwater quality was determined using IWQI method. Thirty-three water samples were collected. Five chemical parameters were tested in the laboratory: chloride, electrical conductivity, bicarbonate, sodium and SAR to generate the water quality database using Kriging interpolation technique. Computation of IWQI values for each source was made and was used to generate the IWQI map using the weighted summation. DRATIC method was used to delineate vulnerability of groundwater. Layers were generated using the following parameters: depth to groundwater, net recharge, aquifer media, topography, vadose zone impacts, and hydraulic conductivity. The aquifer vulnerability map was prepared by overlaying layers. Three different vulnerability zones were determined according to DRASTIC scores low (<100), medium (100-140) and high (>140). Integration of maps of quality, vulnerability and potential of groundwater was made using an unsupervised MLC classification method. Groundwater potential was in three zones: very good zone was 26.99 km2 (12.98%), the good zone was 126.22 km2 (60.71%) and the poor zone was 54.69 km2 (26.31%). The average annual exploitable groundwater reserves are estimated at 0.026 (MCM/km2) in the zone of “very good”, 0.024 MCM/km2 in the zone of “good” and 0.018 MCM/km2 in the zone of “poor”. Groundwater quality was in two use restrictions: High Restriction of 90.90% with the IWQI value from 40 to 55 on the area of 188.98 km2 of the study area and Severe Restriction of 9.10% with IWQI values from 32 to 40 covering of 18.92 km2. The study area had a high probability of contamination. Low vulnerability covers an area of 11.23km2 (5.40%), 77.83km2 (37.44%) for medium and 118.83km2 (57.16%) for high. The resulting clustered map was classified into five categories with their respective regions: 17.58% very poor (36.56km2), 13.84% poor (28.77km2), 12.69% good (26.39km2), 31.46% very good (65.39km2) and 24.43 % excellent (50.78km2). The sub counties in Mbale district that have inadequate and unsuitable groundwater for irrigated agriculture are Budwale, Wanale, Busano, Bubyangu, Bufumbo and Nyondo since they belong to the zones of very poor and poor. The remaining sub counties have available and suitable groundwater for irrigated agriculture since they belong to the zones of good, very good and excellent.