The Northern Cape province’s town of De Aar will become one of the very few in South Africa to drill and pump its boreholes strategically using scientific maps of underground aquifers. Harrison Pienaar, an aquifer expert at the CSIR, is calling on all South African waterboards, mayors, municipal managers and communities to conduct cost-effective groundwater surveys, ensuring compliance with the national directive to diversify municipal water supply. 

Like the rest of the Northern Cape (NC), the parched and sunbaked town of De Aar in the Emthanjeni Local Municipality relies almost entirely on groundwater. Read more...