Groundwater as an option
Water supply is severely under scrutiny as South Africa
recovers from the aftermath of terrible droughts while
attempting to meet ever-growing demand.
By Matthys Dippenaar (PhD, PrSciNat)
I
n the light of the severe water
shortages,
(often
uninformed)
opinions about mine water decant,
hydraulic fracturing, and governance,
to name a few, are compromising our
objectivity to consider sustainable
sources of water beyond the
conventional capture of surface water.
International research is developing
rapidly towards alternative sources for
water supply. Fog harvesting, artificial
groundwater recharge, urban supply
from groundwater, and desalinisation
are increasingly being accepted
worldwide as supplement to water
supply and as sole supply options to
cities, peri-urban areas, and rural
developments. For some reason, South
Africa has not yet bought into the option
of utilising aquifers.
Pretoria was supplied with
spring water for the first 75 years of
its founding. To this day, the same
dolomitic springs supply almost 8% of
the water requirements of the City of
Tshwane (which has since increased
significantly in land surface and
population), amounting to almost 60
million litres per day.
The City of Cape Town was also
initially supplied by springs, although
16
water from these springs is now
discharged via underground tunnels
to the ocean, owing to increasing
contamination resulting from rapid
urbanisation. However, Cape Town
has successfully implemented and
managed the first (and presently only)
groundwater recharge scheme in
South Africa, where water is stored
in the sand deposits in Atlantis.
Numerous other cities and smaller
towns are dependent on groundwater;
yet, groundwater sustainability is still
queried.
Trust issues
While it is understandable that rapid
development resulted in significant
water
imports
to
metropolitan
regions, we seem to have lost our
trust in groundwater. Groundwater
is essential to supplemen