Vryheid has run dry
Taps in Vryheid in northern KZN have run dry as the recent rain has failed to make an impact.
|||Durban - Vryheid has run dry. Residents of the northern KwaZulu-Natal town were anticipating running water being turned off on Friday. However, the situation is so dire, taps ran dry on Wednesday night.
Arnold Ramodibe, spokesman for the Abaqulusi Municipality under which Vryhied falls, confirmed this morning the drought had dried up the dams, leaving only unusable muddy water.
Although it was raining in the area on Thursday, it would need to continue for a good while and in the catchment areas for it to have an impact on dam levels.
For now, the town’s waterworks would remain off and residents would need to collect water from tanks the municipality was installing around the town.
“Water can be collected from the Klipkerk in Church Street and the borehole in Mason Street,” Ramodibe said.
He could not say how many people were affected but confirmed that there was no piped, municipal water to any of Abaqulusi’s 22 wards
A borehole was the only way the 56-sleeper Rita’s Guesthouse was able to provide water for its guests, said employee Dot Nel.
“I had to come to work to shower this morning. We knew the drought was bad but you realise how bad when you open your tap and nothing comes out,” she said.
The guesthouse had a borehole drilled about two years ago for its new self-catering quarters but it was now connected to the whole establishment. Their unwitting foresight is keeping them in business, in a town where boreholes were fast becoming the only source of water.
The drought has brought good business for Phillip Bronkhorst, owner of Bronks Siting Services. His job is to identify areas where there is underground water so drilling can be done.
“Until about seven months ago, things were very quiet. Now I do about five sittings a month, from government, private business and the public for their homes,” said Bronkhorst.
The former Vryhied resident spoke to the Daily News on Thursday after another successful day finding water underground in Estcourt. “I don’t use any fancy machines, it’s a gift from God. I just use my stick,” he said.
Bronkhorst first discovered his “gift” when he was 18 years old and it has “almost” never failed him in 30 years. “Most times when there is no water where I have sited is because the client doesn’t want to drill deep enough. Drilling is very expensive,” he said.
“I walk around an area with my stick upright, it has a copper front and when it pulls down to be horizontal, I know there is water there.”
Bronkhorst’s “stick” may not be scientific but it is a genuine method referred to as dowsing.
According to the website of the US scientific agency, the US Geological Survey: “Dowsing refers in general to the practice of using a forked stick, rod, pendulum, or similar device to locate underground water.”
Other methods of finding water underground include using geological machines such as scanners, finding magnetic pulses, using copper or brass wires or glasses of water on the palm.
Bronkhorst is heading to Vryhied next, where he said there was a big demand for his services. “I have been called to a few homes, farms and businesses. Once I have done my job, the drillers come in and then the pumps and you have fresh chemical-free water.”
In all his years doing this, Bronkhorst said he had never experienced such a severe drought.
“Vryhied was hit bad in the drought five years ago, but this is much worse,” he said.
Daily News