Water supply study at Manama, southern Zimbabwe

Abstract: This paper describes a groundwater prospecting project, including two parts, in the rural area in southern Zimbabwe. The first part deals with a gelogical survey and locating of waterbearing fracture zones with the electromagnetic methods Slingram and VLF, and a resistivity instrument. The field study consisted of geological mapping and geophysical profiling in an area of 5 km by 5 km. The results from the profiles are commented and interpretated together with the geological observations. The second part of the project is about groundwater extraction by wellpoints from a river sand dam. A survey was made to find a better location of the wellpoint system, and a study in order to find a better technical solution was also included. The methods used were mechanical sounding in cross-sections, leveling of the groundwater table and collecting of soil samples in an area of 250 m by 1100 m. Recommendations are made for four borehole sitings for water supply, and concerning the sand dam to change the extraction system to one with a lower intake level.