Water, Sewage & Effluent March April 2019 | Page 32

provinces), most probably as result of
human activity.
Depending on the geological
formation, individual quality constituents
can sometimes exceed the drinking
water limit, for example fluorides in parts
of the North West Province. Pollution of
groundwater can be a serious problem
negatively impacted by activities on
the land surface. Contamination of the
underground source can go undetected
for a long time.
What about the future?
What is considered proper
groundwater management?
Boreholes are often drilled as a
last resort when droughts and
crises strike. Although this
often saves a town, it is far from ideal.
Groundwater needs to be an integral
component in the ongoing planning and
development processes. There needs to
be a move away from crisis management
to ongoing implementation of drought-
proofing measures. Plans must be in
place for appropriate measures during
and ahead of droughts — for example,
rehabilitation of groundwater equipment
and borehole deepening.
Groundwater resources management
has to deal with balancing the
exploitation of this complex resource (in
terms of quantity, quality, and surface-
water interactions) with the increasing
needs of water and land users
(which can pose a threat to resource
availability and quality). All aquifers
have two fundamental characteristics: a
capacity for groundwater storage and a
capacity for groundwater flow. Different
geological formations vary widely in
the degree to which they exhibit these
properties. Groundwater as the ‘invisible
part’ of the hydrological cycle means that
the flow boundaries of groundwater are
generally more difficult to define than for
surface water systems. It may also vary
with time. The recharge
rates of aquifers are
fundamental in the
sustainability of
To date, South Africa has largely
developed
shallow,
unconfined
groundwater resources. This will need
to change in provinces such as North
West and Limpopo where rivers that flow
all year round — known as perennial
rivers — are ‘few and far
between’.
Increasing
water scarcity will
force greater reliance
on
groundwater
resources.
This
will in turn require
systematic exploration
to locate possible
deeper systems. The
challenge lies in the
fact that the country
now needs a groundwater development
capacity greater than before to enable
locating, characterising, and evaluating
resources.
Whenever capacity is mentioned,
the critical shortages and limitations
at municipal level are obvious. This is
especially disastrous in towns where
groundwater, in many instances, has
become the sole source of domestic
water supply. What is less known is the
capacity drain at the DWS, including the
scrapping of a dedicated geohydrology
unit. The disappearance of the
Directorate Geohydrology resulted in
a rapid loss in overall groundwater
capacity in the department. This
gap is of particular concern at a
time when a National Groundwater
Champion is needed to help new
groundwater capacity in catchment
management agencies (CMAs) and
in local government. This is holding
back sustainable development and
management of groundwater resources
in South Africa.
It is much quicker to develop boreholes than the construction of major
infrastructure usually needed for big surface water development projects.
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Water Sewage & Effluent March/April 2019
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