Water is not a free-for-all

BOREHOLES: 'WE'VE REGULATIONS IN PLACE'

- Marizka Coetzer

Many people do not know about the borehole regulations and, because of the current water issues in Gauteng, people who can afford it think they can do whatever they want, according to environmental scientist Ayesha Laher.

"It's not free and you cannot use as much as you like. There is national legislation on what you can abstract. Water affairs is the custodian of all water services and groundwater and we need to comply with their regulations.

If you extract a certain amount of groundwater that exceeds what's written in the National Water Act you need to apply for licences for the abstraction of that groundwater or surface water," she said.

Laher said bylaws require that people register the borehole and only use it according to the National Water Act, which limits private use to a certain amount.

"People don't know about these regulations; there is a standard SANS10299 that tells you how the person must drill the hole and a recharge test and test how much water you can take out of the water aquifer.