Stricter rules for borehole drilling to enhance the protection of vital water resources

THE Department of Water and Sanitation is looking to exert tighter control on the country's water sources to ensure they are not overused.

- THAMI MAGUBANE

Last month, it published draft regulations partly aimed at regulating the drilling of boreholes in an effort to keep track of this activity. The proposed regulations, which are available on the department's website, are currently out for public comment.

The department has existing control measures in place to monitor the drilling of boreholes for commercial use and requires those users to register, while domestic users are not affected.

However, the proposed regulations would require all existing borehole owners and those seeking to drill boreholes to register with the department.

The move comes as communities, frustrated by their local councils’ failure to deliver water, are having to contract service providers to drill boreholes and pipe the water to their homes.

This has been the case for homes in the Vulindlela area, in the Msunduzi Municipality, where the council has failed to deliver water for several years.

The draft regulations propose that all borehole owners, including Schedule 1, Existing Lawful Use (ELU), General Authorisation (GA), and water use licence users, must capture their details and the existing geosite information on the National Groundwater Archive (NGA).

Regarding new boreholes, geosite identifiers must be obtained from the NGA before undertaking the drilling of a borehole on any aquifer, the draft regulations document states.