Boreholes hydrating coastal villages and tourist venues on the east coast north of East London are drying up or producing undrinkable, brackish water.
Others are under pressure as levels drop and, if there is not massive rain, they are in danger of not seeing out 1919.
“When water is scarce, the temptation is to keep pumping, but if you pump a hole dry, you effectively create a vacuum, and being close to the coast, seawater will fill it, and that’s it,” said Johan Botha, owner of Drilling Africa, the fourth generation borehole drilling company based in East London.
“What is equally concerning is that 10 years ago our average holes before striking water were between 90m to 110m.
“Now we are going past 200m to hit water, and it is often brackish – a sure sign that we need to start re-thinking about the way we consume water.”
He said business was brisk as farmers and businesses wanted new holes to supplement those where yields were dwindling. A 200m hole costs R70,000. Botha said the ground was parched after years of drought, with the last heavy and prolonged rains nearly 10 years ago.
“Think of the ground as an old sponge, not wet for ages. You can’t dip it in water to get it properly wet. It has to soak. The earth is the same.
“We need huge rains to soak through to the fissures and aquifers that store our underground water,” he said.
Brian Stanley, a resident at Glen Navar, east of East London, says the village’s borehole was becoming increasingly brackish and not fit for consumption. At neighbouring Glen Eden Balugha River Estate, marketing director Darryl Jackson said: “We have three boreholes, all brackish, but have solved the issue with a modular desalination plant. It’s expensive but essential.
“Once we sell out, and 60 of the 80 stands are sold, it is simple to add more modules,” he said.
Golf estates rank a close second to most thirsty farms and at Olivewood Private Estate and Golf Club, near Chintsa East, acting general manager Richard Watt said the hospitality section and homes had adequate potable borehole water, but the course was suffering.
Michael Horn, a farmer in the Kwelera area, is concerned about boreholes increasing in salinity. “As water becomes more brackish it makes monitoring it a greater task, because you have to balance fertilizer with the amount of natural salt.”..