Overview of the aquifer system in the Senegalese and Mau-ritanian sedimentary basin

Résumé

The Senegalese and Mauritanian sedimentary basin extends from Guinea Bissau to Northern Mauritania through Sen-egal and the Gambia territories. It contains a diversity of aquifers units that are the main sources of drinking water sup-ply for over 80% of the population. Some of them are shared by 2 or 3 countries, and their management should receive attention by the various countries. With increasing pressure on water resources, groundwater use will augment progres-sively to provide sources of water and to satisfy the new demand with regard to the population growth, the living standard improvement, and new trend of irrigated agriculture development, as well.
This paper is intended to characterize the groundwater potential in the sedimentary basin that bears groundwater con-tained in various (spatially and stratigraphically) aquifer units, with two major transboundary aquifers: the deep Maas-trichtian aquifer and the alluvial aquifer in the Senegal River basin. Belong the necessary characterization of this aqui-fer system, the paper will aim to discuss the institutionalized groundwater management bearing in mind the existence of River Basin Organisations in the regional.