Water Supply and Spring Discharges Assessment in the Foumban Locality, Western Highlands of Cameroon

Access to safe and sustainable water resources remains a major challenge in many sub-Saharan African urban centers, particularly in rapidly growing towns characterized by insufficient hydraulic infrastructure. This study investigates household water supply modes and evaluates spring productivity in the Foumban locality, situated in the Bamoun Plateau of the Western Highlands of Cameroon. It combines socio-economic surveys, hydrometric monitoring, geostatistical techniques, and multivariate statistical analyses to better understand the dependence of local populations on groundwater resources and the hydrodynamic behavior of springs in fractured basement aquifers. More than 500 households distributed across 13 localities were surveyed between 2014 and 2016 to assess water accessibility, consumption patterns, and socio-economic constraints related to water supply. In parallel, monthly discharge measurements were conducted on ten representative springs over one hydrological year using the volumetric gauging method. The results reveal that groundwater constitutes the principal source of domestic water supply in Foumban. During the dry season, 50% of households depend on springs, whereas 22.8%, 16%, 6.7%, and 4.5% rely respectively on CAMWATER, wells, boreholes, and rivers. In the rainy season, spring water remains dominant (39.7%), followed by CAMWATER (22.1%), wells (14.4%), rainwater (12.2%), boreholes (7.7%), and rivers (3.9%). Most households travel considerable distances to fetch water, reflecting the inadequacy of the public distribution network and the precarious socio-economic conditions of the population. Water-related diseases, notably typhoid and malaria, remain recurrent and are associated with the consumption of untreated water. Spring discharges vary significantly both spatially and temporally, ranging from 0.11 to 8.40 m³/h, with the most productive springs generally located along major fracture. Spring discharge variations closely follow seasonal rainfall patterns, although delayed recharge responses indicate heterogeneous aquifer behavior. Principal Component Analysis, Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, and semi-variogram modeling reveal the coexistence of shallow weathered aquifers and deep fractured aquifers characterized by strong spatial heterogeneity. These findings provide valuable scientific information for sustainable groundwater management, urban water planning, and socio-economic development in Foumban and other basement regions of tropical Africa.