Vast African Water Source Found

How long before we get well drillers here asking how to seal their wells when drilling through a salt water reservoir? Well, how do you seal it?

I think that would all depend on the geology of the strata above and below the salt water aquifer plus what its made up of and how thick it its.

The old school way I learned about involves drilling just through the aquifer and then back grouting a plug all the way through and a ways out around the bore hole then re drilling through the grout plug once its set and continuing on from there.

But I suspect that there are multiple ways to do it depending resources and conditions at hand.

Wells in Florida are required to seal between unconsolidated aquifers. This wasn't the case in the past and a lot of time and money went into finding and repairing old wells.

.

An isolation case and grout is used for each separate aquifer through which a well passes. The successive isolation cases typically fit concentrically within the previous, meaning if several aquifers are to be penetrated, the initial well is quite large.

What could possibly go wrong?

It is common in other African countries to have a layer of salt water above the fresh. They have been able to deal with it over the years. The salt water lakes in Kenya are many miles from the ocean.