Working Areas

1. Overview

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The SASS and SAI Aquifers are two of the large transboundary aquifers in northern Africa.

An overview map is presented on the right.

Large area of interest
The basins are the overall geographic frame of work: applicable for some Aquifer services and products to be developed on a basin wide scale.

Areas of interest - AOI
priority areas according to the users. In each basin there are 2-3 areas of interest with a total size of around 100 000 km2 defined.

Pilot areas - PA
are situated within the areas of interest and are identified as priority areas according to the users. In project phase 2 pilot products are generated in these pilot areas. A pilot area has typically the size of around 2000 – 3000 km². In SASS 5 and in SAI 4 pilot areas are identified.

2. SASS

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The North-Western Sahara Aquifer System, better known after its acronym in French as SASS ("Système d’Aquifères du Sahara Septentrional") is a groundwater resource and freshwater reservoir underlying parts of Algeria, Libya and Tunisia.

It occurs at varying depths (as deep as 1000m) and has negligible recharge. Intense development by the three countries in the past thirty years has exposed to aquifer to a serious risk of groundwater drawdown, loss of artesian pressure, and salinization, across the national borders.

The map to the right presents an important part of SASS with the AOIs (red) and PA s (green) indicated.

AOI 1: Region of Biskra / Oued Rhir-Souf (Algeria/Tunisia) with the

PA-1: Ouest des Zibans
PA-2: Oued Rhir

AOI 2: Djeffara (Tunisia and Lybia) with the

PA-3: Region of Ben Gardane, Tunisia
PA-4: Region of Gabès, Tunisia
PA-5: Region of Ben Gashir, Libya

3. SAI

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The transboundary SAI (Système d'Aquifères d'Iullemeden) sedimentary basin is defined by the surrounding major mountain ranges with the Air in the north, the Adrar in the north west and the Jos Plateau in Nigeria in the south. In the east, along a line from the Jos Plateau to the Air massive, the basin is partly separated from the confined aquifers in the Chad Basin by the South-North Continental Dorsal. To the west, in Mali and Niger, the system is bounded by the Hamadien Sandstone and may be connected to the Tamesna extension basin to the west of the Adrar highlands through the Gao Trench. In the southwest the basin limit follows the basement range along the River Niger.

The SAI is a multi-aquifer system composed of inserted Cretaceous Continental Intercalaire sedimentary formations and with overlying final Tertiary Continental Terminal regroupings. In some parts the system is overlain by the Marine Cretaceous aquifers that extend along the northern fringes of the basin. In the southeast, in the North-West Nigeria Basin, the SAI multi-aquifers are known as the Rima Group with the Cretaceous Gundumi-Illo and Wurno and Sokoto Group and the Tertiary Gwandu aquifers and the Kalambina limestone formation.

The map to the right presents an important part of SAI with the AOIs (blue) and PA s (red) indicated.

AOI 1: Gidan Rounji – Maradi/Jibia (Niger/Nigeria)

PA-1: South of Maradi (Niger/Nigeria)

AOI2: Dosso-Dogon Doutchi – towards Sokoto-Birni N´Konni (Niger/Nigeria)

PA-2: Birni N´Konni (Niger/Nigeria)

AOI3: Menaka - Bani Bangou (Niger/Mali)

PA-3: Menaka (Mali)
PA-4: Bani Bangou (Niger)