How groundwater is used, abused and paraded in a crisis

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.”– Benjamin Franklin

Groundwater is a highly used renewable water resource, yet it is poorly understood by the layperson because of its storage, flow, recharge and chemistry complexities. This makes groundwater management complex.

South Africa has variable groundwater environments with diverse aquifers across the country. Consequently, good hydrogeological knowledge is needed for the development of groundwater, followed by applied science for management and protection of the resource.

This article highlights problems of municipal water supply, with particular reference to groundwater. Recommendations are made on how to correct these problems.

“Challenges” must be the most frequently used and broad-meaning word used in South Africa, particularly by authorities when referring to water supply problems. In most cases the “challenges” arise, not owing to water availability, but to inadequate planning, plus neglect of existing municipal water supply, distribution and treatment infrastructure.

Groundwater has received much prominence in the past few months because of so-called drought or water-shortage conditions in many parts of the country. There is a difference between drought and water shortages linked to supply system failure.

It has occurred that a municipality announces water restrictions due to a “drought situation” when there has been adequate rainfall and groundwater resources are present.

It is disingenuous to apply water restrictions with penalties when the real reason is water supply distribution failures caused by system breakdowns and poor technical performance.

About 400 towns in South Africa rely solely or partly on boreholes for their water supply. Several metros also use groundwater as part of their supply. In rural areas about 75% of water supply is from boreholes. There is undisputed evidence of the importance of groundwater as a source of supply for domestic and agricultural use in many parts of the country.

Like self-provision has occurred for electrical supply, so too is ‘water backup’ now happening. Groundwater is increasingly seen as one of the solutions by many urban residents.

What is apparent from recent “municipal water shortages” is the disregard that municipal officials have for their groundwater supplies and related infrastructure – whether it be a single borehole or several boreholes making up a wellfield. Only when crises arrive, do investigations occur to find that available groundwater infrastructure has not been maintained. This may include missing or broken borehole pumps, stolen electrical cable or pipes, or clogged boreholes. Recent water supply crises have also shown that the municipal authorities fail to prepare properly when forewarned that shortages from traditional supply sources are imminent – crisis management is left too late.

Droughts are not a new phenomenon. The frequency may have changed, but the consequences are now greater due to larger urban populations using old infrastructure.

Planning and preparedness for predicted drought situations is the problem.

Instances of emergency groundwater interventions include Cape Town, Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), Mossel Bay, George, Knysna, Sedgefield, Plettenberg Bay, Makhanda (Grahamstown), Graaff Reinet (now Robert Subukwe Town), Beaufort West, Ladismith and Oudshoorn. Almost without fail, as soon as the crisis passes, the groundwater resources are abandoned or allowed to fall into disrepair.

The cycle is then kickstarted again with the arrival of the next crisis. It takes time to develop water supply systems – including groundwater. Exploration, implementation and operationalisation should be undertaken in the good times to be prepared when the next shortages occur.

Managed aquifer recharge is a proven technique to enhance the sustainability of a groundwater resource. Where feasible, it should be implemented in support of conjunctive municipal water supply schemes. Dr Murray has written and presented courses in this regard.

It is annoying to repeatedly hear politicians pontificating about what will be done to address water supply issues. Pronouncement on actions to solve water shortages has gone on for many years, but evidence shows a deteriorating situation throughout the country – Johannesburg is a recent case.

Hydrogeology expertise

In August 2005 the then minister of water affairs and forestry, Buyelwa Sonjica, stated in a SAfm interview at the Northern Cape Provincial Water Summit: “As far as that is concerned, we have not done very well. We are in the process of ensuring that we are able to access groundwater. In terms of our experience, we are not that experienced in terms of developing and protecting groundwater.”

After hearing the interview, Morris wrote to the minister noting that SA had many capable hydrogeologists, several within her own department.

He made the following suggestion: “I respectfully request that your department ‘look locally’. If the USA are offering aid money for water supply development, then stipulate that it must be spent using, or at least involving, local expertise.”

Dr Parsons has written extensively on groundwater issues in South Africa. In a 2018 article, he noted: “There is an army of hydrogeologists in South Africa who know much about groundwater. The 350 members of the Ground Water Division – established in 1978 – are found in government, academia, research organisations and consultancies.”

In a 2024 article, Andrew Johnstone and Charlotte Metcalf of the SA National Bottled Water Association discussed the need for groundwater protection. They noted: “Where groundwater is located close to human activities it may become contaminated by anthropogenic sources such as sewerage leaks and chemicals.”

What are the solutions?

What is evident is that many municipalities using groundwater do not have the competence, will, nor capability and finance, to manage the resource and associated infrastructure. Only two municipalities are known to have employees that are professionally registered hydrogeologists or properly trained technicians. This situation is exacerbated when municipal officials do not follow the recommendations made in hydrogeological reports – for example, over-pumping of boreholes, no or inadequate monitoring of water levels, plus insufficient protection and maintenance of infrastructure.

Dr Murray is of the opinion that: “On new or upgraded groundwater projects, hydrogeologists must be included by municipalities and their engineers in the commissioning phase – that final phase of a project when infrastructure is checked to ensure it has been installed to the specifications of the design engineers and hydrogeologist.”

There is a general lack of understanding of groundwater supplies by municipal engineers/technicians. What is needed is a course, ‘What engineers need to know about groundwater’.

Oversight of water use licences (WUL) is delegated to the catchment management agencies (CMAs). A WUL will be issued with a set of requirements which will stipulate what monitoring must occur, including audits – with reporting back to the CMA on the status quo. It is questioned whether this auditing and reporting adequately occurs or whether the CMAs take note of the audit findings.

It is recommended that WULs for municipal groundwater use MUST include a requirement for the appointment of a qualified hydrogeologist, either as an internal employee, or as an independent professional, to undertake oversight of every municipality’s groundwater supply scheme.

The following actions are also recommended:

• Groundwater must be seen as not just a supply source in times of emergency. It must be included as part of future conjunctive water supply schemes;
• Provinces should appoint hydrogeologists to audit all municipalities that use groundwater to assess the functionality of their infrastructure and whether adequate monitoring and management of the resource is occurring. Ensuring a sustainable groundwater supply should not be complex – as long as an appropriate monitoring and management programme has been created and is followed;
• CMAs must follow-up on WUL audit reports and whether the groundwater is being sustainably used.
• A properly qualified and experienced hydrogeologist must be appointed to the Presidents’ Water Task Team – as announced in the 2026 State Of the Nation Address. This person will need to be persuasive in making recommendations regarding groundwater use;
• The Groundwater Division of the Geological Society of South Africa should respond to the parliamentary call for public submissions on the Water Services Amendment Bill (B24-2025);
• Political “players” at national, provincial and municipal level must step back from interfering in technical issues around water. These must be left to the appropriately qualified people, i.e. scientists, engineers and technicians – working with the municipal manager and team;
• “An introduction to Groundwater” course must be available to universities/technikons as a module for civil engineering studies – especially for a career in water-related issues;
• Rethinking on the “economics and worth of (all) fresh water” is required.

“Water funds have been mismanaged for years,” says Wayne Duvenage of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse. “Unless revenue is protected, procurement is transparent, and officials who fail society are removed and charged, we will be stuck in this place for years to come.”

Building on the above statement by Duvenage, in an article on 8 October 2025, Prof Anthony Turton noted: “The economics of water just don’t make sense, simply because it is treated as a social good. We call this model Winer, an acronym for ‘water is not an economic resource’.”

This article holds an important message for all users and managers of water – and particularly the State that sets the laws.

In conclusion, although water is now classed as a state asset, the management of SA’s limited water resources should not be left just to the state. One only has to reference the statements made on the SA Government News site around the time of the 2017–18 droughts to see that the actions to be taken have not led to any meaningful improvement in municipal water supply. We need to ask why?

Though South Africa has various Acts and ample guideline documents for the development, use, licensing, protection and management of water resources, it is the opinion of the writers that they have become overly complicated owing to amendments and shared accountability. Accordingly, it is difficult for authorities to effectively enforce the laws, never mind users to understand what their responsibilities are.

While the licensing of water use may be noble in its objective, the WUL application process, for groundwater, via eWULAAS has grown into a technical version of the Nyami Nyami monster.

It is so overly complex and demanding in its data requirements for licensing groundwater use that in time it will become unrecognisable and extinct, being fed unnecessary data that ultimately morphs into inaccuracy. Groundwater WULs need to be a lot more pragmatic and structured for different scales of use.

The value of South Africa’s water resources for the survival of its people, business, growth and the needs of environment/ecological survival is crucial if the country is to move forward and improve the lives of its citizens.

Streamlining the way water use is licensed and managed must happen – including our hidden treasure of groundwater. DM

The authors of this article each have about 40 years’ experience in groundwater resource development and management throughout South Africa.