Oh, how I miss the borehole we had at our house in the Free State. Coming from Gauteng, where water delivery was not usually a problem, boreholes were an oddity.
When we mover to the Free State, having a borehole began as quite a novelty, but after some months the actual value of its supply of life-giving water became apparent to us.
Some time back in the 1980s there had been a scare of some sort relating to water supply to the cities.
I remember in Lyttelton area, there was a constant revving of diesel engines that drive the drill rigs, accompanied by the plume of powdered rock from the drill hole being pounded by the drill bit.
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Hopes were always high that water would be found at a relatively shallow depth because of the high cost of drilling even then, intersecting a dyke was the indication of success.
Sometimes though, drilling extended into the dolomite zone where water would be retained by the porous rock and this could also be taken as a favourable outcome.
It was a status symbol then to be able to place a sign stating ‘Borehole Water’ on your gate.
Of course, years back people were cleverer than today I feel, and actually showed interest in living in harmony with our natural surroundings and earth environment.
In a small town especially, it is easy to notice the placement of large corrugated iron rain tanks for the harvesting of the rain via the roof gutter feeding into the tank.
Older houses in older suburbs in the city followed the same trend, but eventually they fell out of favour, perhaps because water supply to metropolitan areas became more reliable.
Then, after the many years of mechanical neglect and municipal mismanagement, we sit where we are now – up to our necks in dire circumstances, which are lightly brushed aside and are nailed to the cross of challenges that water supply authorities had to face!
How tired most of us are, so tired and weakened by this often repeated recitation.
As previously noted in the press, it appears that the poor showing financially over the Christmas period, was due to Covid-19 lurking behind every bush and scaring tourists away.
I fear that the real reason for the poor turnout here at the coast was due to lack of water as people (even tourists) enjoy brushing their teeth, wallowing in a bath and jumping around in the shower, after a busy day spending their hard come by rands in our shops.
Fortunate are we that amid the turmoil of interrupted water supply here on the South Coast, we at least have a jojo into which our harvested rain water flows.
Hopefully, Ugu Municipality will be able to jack the water supply network up with the cash injection they have just received, and maybe next Christmas we will experience a larger influx of people happy to spend their money with us on the Hibiscus Coast.
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