A hydrologist with the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers has found pure drinking water in Makhanda, formerly Grahamstown, at his first drilling attempt.
The organisation said that Dr Gideon Groenewald, who is also a geologist and palaeontologist, struck liquid gold on Tuesday drilling at 145 metres into a rock formation in Makhanda which is conservatively expected to produce 20 000 litres of water per day.
On Wednesday, the drilling rig will be positioned at other sites with a similar rock formation where it is expected that higher yields of water will be found at lower depths.
“The aim is to drill at as many sites as possible to provide a sustainable alternative to bottled water which is an emergency stop-gap measure,” said Gift of the Givers founder, Dr Imtiaaz Sooliman.
Last week the Makana municipality gave the go-ahead to the organisation to start drilling boreholes as a medium-term solution to the Municipality's water crisis.
Sooliman said Dr Groenewald has supervised the drilling of 200 boreholes with the Martyn Landmann drilling company for Gift of the Givers in an eight-month period providing 50 million litres of water per day.
He said that animal fodder brought in from Howick in Kwazulu Natal will be distributed to various emerging farmers through their chiefs to bring ease to starving animals.
“Non-potable water specifically for animal consumption will arrive later this week from Gift of the Givers "water" warehouse in Cape Town,” he said.
(Image: Gift of Givers - drilling in Beaufort West)
