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20 February 2019

We are very happy to announce that the Gift of the Givers (GoG) team led by specialist hydrologist Dr Gideon Groenewald started the drilling process this morning and found water near the Waainek Water Treatment Works at about 1pm today. The municipality would like to express its sincerest gratitude to the GoG for the assistance they have provided and continue to provide to the municipality during this difficult period free of charge.

Dr Groenewald and his team started the drilling process in the area this morning. He told the press yesterday that the idea is to log all the existing boreholes around town and marry all of them with the infrastructure of the town. He would then identify the most plausible boreholes to use in terms of their proximity to electricity and pipelines. Those boreholes will be blown clean with a rig and tested both for the yield and chemistry.

Groenewald indicated that GoG is seriously concerned that we may not receive sufficient rain in March to fill the reservoirs that supply the Western part of the town. “We are fairly convinced that the Eastern side of the town will have water all the time because they link to the Gariep dam. Unfortunately the Gariep dam is also drying up and unless it rains sufficiently in the catchment area of that dam during March that’s also cause for concern,” he said.

To augment this with the available money the GoG propose drilling at least one or two boreholes close to the Waainek Water Treatment Works to save on cost of electricity and water connections to the system. “GoG must make it clear that we will only supply bulk water to the treatment plant to save costs. The water will run the normal treatment process of the bulk water coming from the Settler’s dam.”

“We know that the aquifer where the Waainek plant is on is the  Witteberg Quartzite which throughout history has provide high quality water. Ground water is usually of very high quality. The process started today.

Issued by the Makana Communications Office.