Water Wheel July/Aug 2023: Groundwater

Abstract

“Now things are going to change. School is going to be normal… toilets… everything. For us this is life,” Gumede told TimesLive while water from the new well gushed, almost at her feet. At the time, it was the thirteenth borehole opened in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (which includes Gqeberha) by Gift of the Givers, the humanitarian relief agency. More than seven years of below-average rainfall in the Eastern Cape, crumbling infrastructure, and, according to not a few critics, governance failures, had brought matters to a head. Schools, hospitals, old age homes and thousands of residents across the metro were running dry. Even the police K9 unit wasn’t sure where to find water for their dogs. Gift of the Givers were rightly praised for their swift action. But while the boreholes they sank (or in some cases, reopened) helped stave off disaster, tapping subterranean water can potentially have unintended consequences. Unless done right, drilling risks overdepleting the resource, pollution and other ills.

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