Modern system keeping Hermanus' wells flowing

Abstract

Groundwater Cape Town-based earth sciences consultancy Umvoto Africa was contracted by Overstrand Municipality from 2002 when it became clear that surface water resources would no longer meet the needs of the rapidly developing coastal town. Since then, three wellfields have been developed, with the potential of supplementing the annual municipal allocation of 2.8 million m3 of water from the De Bos Dam by a maximum of 3.2 million m3 of groundwater per year. Currently, only the Gateway Wellfield – named after a nearby shopping centre – is in production, the licence having been issued in June 2011. The Camphill and Volmoed Wellfields in the Hemel en Aarde Valley are still in testing phase under a draft licence, but are expected to become operational this summer. In all cases the production boreholes target the fractured-rock aquifer of the Peninsula Formation – a quartzitic sandstone component of the Table Mountain Group – but the three wellfields occur in separate hydrogeological zones.

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