Recently I attended a presentation on a groundwater implementation plan for the City of Cape Town.
Good leaders surround themselves with people who can provide them with information they need, not information they want.
As soon as emergency drought relief drilling started, the chorus went up about the impact this would have on the environment.
So where are the environmental impacts from this groundwater abstraction?
Like all professions, we have good hydrogeologists and not so good hydrogeologists.
But a review of groundwater use in this country points to it having no more than very small and insignificant environmental impacts.
Using the recently attended groundwater presentation as an example, the speaker was describing the volume of groundwater that could be abstracted from aquifers in an around Cape Town.
The volume of groundwater abstracted may be in the order of 10 – 15% of recharge, a relatively small amount.
I regularly hear that the aquifers in and around Cape Town are getting hammered by the drought and the frenzy to abstract groundwater.
I never see any measured data to support such claims.