Farmers Weekly: Ground water Part One:

Economic value of groundwater Water is the true wealth in a dry land; without it land is worthless or nearly so. And if you control water, you control the land that depends on it. Wallace Stegner (1954) At my visit to the recent Nampo Expo I overheard a pump salesman and a farmer talking. The farmer was enquiring about protection for his borehole pump to prevent it from burning out and about problems he is experiencing with the water level in his borehole. The salesman had a hundred and one devices that he could sell in order to protect this farmer Considering the economic value of ground water this was, and remains a shocking answer!

Although one cannot generalise I was wondering how many irrigation farmers still have the same outlook on this matter? Here you are spending hundreds of thousands of Rand on capital equipment to irrigate crops, more on working and planting, and more money on protecting the pump, yet it is considered too expensive to test the borehole? The very reason opting for irrigation is economics and profits, yet it is concluded that it is too expensive to test this resource! Having a borehole tested means amongst other things that one knows how much water one can extract to retain sustainability as well as the quality of water you extract. Can you justify spending a large capital outlay on an irrigation system without the assurance that you will have a constant water supply? A proper borehole test and resource evaluation will cost you a fraction of your capital outlay but/and will give you the peace of mind that you will have water to irrigate. The notion of ll just drill another and carry on does groundwater have an economic value at all? If it does why do so few ground water user in Southern Africa actually contemplate spending money on the scientific evaluation and exploration of this valuable resource? According to the Water Research Commission (WRC) of South Africa, 55.8% of water used in South Africa is used in the agricultural industry. This water is made up of both surface water and groundwater. Irrigation agriculture contributes in the order of 25 to 30 % of the gross agricultural production and is of great importance in the economic activities in rural areas. This, while groundwater in many areas around the world is considered as either an invaluable good or as a good.

In order to put the economic value of groundwater into perspective the United States Government commissioned a project in 1994 to determine the economic value of groundwater. According to that study the first and fundamental step in valuing of a groundwater resource is recognizing and quantifying that resourceIs it too expensive to test a resource and make sure of it In the next article we look at the occurrence of groundwater as well as the legal environment and recent legislation changes in South Africa.