Boreholes – what to do?
The Overstrand Municipality is inundated with queries regarding procedures for sinking boreholes and well points.
Property owners are advised to notify the Client Service Center of the Municipality before sinking a borehole or well point, and to register it. Registration costs R40, and the Municipality will issue a borehole notice, which must be affixed to the boundary fence/wall.
The municipality requires from the owner of any premises within the area of jurisdiction of the municipality upon which a borehole exists, or, if the owner is not in occupation of such premises, the occupier thereof, to notify it on a prescribed form of the existence of a borehole on such premises, and also to provide specific information in respect thereof. The information required as part of the notification must state the aquifer into which the borehole is drilled, and provide the final depth drilled, and ideally the driller’s log or comments.
The Municipality’s Water By-law states that if water is sourced from boreholes into the deep Peninsula or Skurweberg aquifers, the municipality must be provided with an estimate of anticipated water use and satisfactory evidence to the effect that the usage of the water is to be metered. Any person given the consent for abstraction from such a borehole shall provide the municipality on a monthly basis with a reading from the metering device, stating the time and date of reading, and units of flow reading.
The municipality may also require the owner or occupier of any premises who intends to sink a borehole to undertake an environmental impact assessment for such intended borehole before sinking the borehole. Boreholes are also subject to any applicable requirements of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act nr.36 of 1998).
In a recent edition of a newspaper, a resident suggested that by using a well point, property owners could not only water their gardens, but could also use it for domestic purposes. Section 51(7) of the Municipality’s Water By-law requires that such water should comply with the SANS 0241 drinking water quality standards at all times. Water supply from a borehole or well point may under no circumstances be connected to a water installation which is also connected to the municipal water supply.
The Municipality encourages the practice of rainwater harvesting for irrigation purposes. Rainwater tanks are not deemed to be fixed constructions, and may therefore encroach over building lines. Prior consultation with neighbours affected by the erection of rainwater tanks is however advised.
Source: Whale Coast FM