A PROPOSED METHOD TO IMPLEMENT A GROUNDWATER RESOURCE INFORMATION PROJECT (GRIP)IN RURAL COMMUNITIES, SOUTH AFRICA.

• Main Author: Botha, Frederik Stefanus
• Other Authors: Dr I Dennis
• Format: Others
• Language: en-uk
• Published: University of the Free State 2006
• Subjects: Geohydrology
• Online Access: http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-02142006-080814/restricted/

Groundwater forms an essential part of water supply in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. However, at planning level this message seems to be skewed and misinterpreted. Although a vast number of water supply schemes are developed using groundwater as a resource, these schemes are reported to fail and the resources are not considered sustainable. Therefore mistrust in groundwater has developed, planners effectively eliminate groundwater from integrated water resource planning and groundwater continues to be seen only as an ad hoc or emergency supply. The Groundwater Resource Information Project (GRIP) was introduced to compare available information with verified field information and it presents the information to planners and engineers in a format that is sensible and easy to incorporate, therefore presenting groundwater as an integrated sustainable and strategic resource. The work implemented during this project describes a hydrocensus - an information capturing and presentation protocol that can be introduced anywhere at any scale to give planners the opportunity to consider already developed groundwater infrastructure and incorporate it into the overarching planning. The methodology was developed to describe to the user how he/she should go about when conducting a hydrocensus to serve both the needs of water services and water resource managers The development of groundwater in South Africa is discussed to provide a perspective on how groundwater was dealt with in the past and is looked upon now. Issues concerning groundwater resource mapping as attempted by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) and the Water Research Commission (WRC) are discussed and commented on. Also discussed is the availability and format of groundwater data when creating maps and how the data are captured in the different databases. All the maps however are derived from ques tionable and unverified field data. The legal perspective on groundwater in terms of the National Water Act (NWA), the Water Services Act (WSA) and the Environmental Conservation Act (ECA) is also briefly discussed. The different uses of water are mentioned where groundwater may have a significant contribution. Shortcomings in the Act are also discussed. The proposed methodology spells out the so-called Groundwater Resource Information Project (GRIP) and with marketing in the 21st century becoming more important in science, the slogan â Get a GRIP on groundwaterâ was adopted. The methodology highlights the importance of an integrated team with various responsibilities and deliverables, the importance of field and office procedures and the involvement of the community. It describes various verification stages where a quality control officer checks field data through ad hoc site visits and where historically disadvantage individuals previously not involved with a project of this nature, can learn from more experience individuals. Information gathered clearly illustrates that vast amounts of money are spent on groundwater development and that the majority of villages in Limpopo already have boreholes in close proximity. The raw data can be used for immediate planning, operation and management purposes. The core of GRIP is, however, dissemination of information and much time was spent to develop an interface where data is captured, validated and placed on a database accessible through the World Wide Web. The data can be downloaded through various methods available on the web page and exported as an Excel spreadsheet. The data can then be imported in a GIS tool and manipulated to develop a series of planning maps, develop site -specific water supply business plans or help planning engineers with dayto- day requests. Prior to GRIP, it was difficult and time consuming for planners in Limpopo to get access to reports compiled by specialists for municipalities or consulting engineers, but through the means de veloped in GRIP, planning engineers are enabled to stand up in meetings and with hard evidence in hand support future groundwater development and planning, making it truly part of integrated water resource management (IWRM). This study lasted from the beginning of 2002 up to the middle of 2004. Further implementation of GRIP continues in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape and there is a strong possibility that is might be implemented in Kwazulu/Natal and the Free State. The GRIP website, other technology and legislation may change with further implementation of GRIP