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Farmers drill deep for water

1 Feb 2016

Devastating drought, dwindling water resources and government mismanagement of boreholes threaten South Africa's supplies of underground water. Farmers in many regions, in struggling to make ends meet, are drilling boreholes to extreme depths, some going beyond 500m.

Babakathy via Wikimedia Commons

"We have farmers who are drilling beyond 500m on Gauteng's East Rand and West Rand. They hit water but it lasts maybe two days. Then it dries up. The depths to which they are drilling are unprecedented," says Mike Mlengena, president of the African Farmers' Association.

The average depth of boreholes is between 60m and 150m.

Farmers are increasingly hard-pressed to irrigate parched fields and water their cattle.

Groundwater not sustainable

Free State farmer James Tolmay who farms near the Vaal River said that he had a good supply of borehole water but his neighbours had "huge problems". "My boreholes are 12m deep but they are going beyond 200m. We need huge amounts of water to irrigate our crops - 20,000l a day - but they are struggling to get it.

"If we don't get good rains within the week there are going to be serious problems."

But Matthys Dippenaar, a research project leader for the Water Research Commission, said: "It is not sustainable to turn to groundwater when surface water is threatened. "It is dangerous to just start pumping out more groundwater, which depends on rain for replenishment.

"There is no way of knowing how much water is being pumped out of the ground."

Source: The Times

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