TWO Eastern Cape provincial hospitals have received bore-holes, thanks to timeous intervention by the humanitarian organisation, Gift of the Givers.
It recently came to light that operations had been called off on more than one occasion at the Midland Hospital in Graaff-Reinet due to a lack of water.
This followed an incident where an operation was underway, but taps suddenly ran dry, leaving hospital staff to rush about madly in an attempt to find and boil water to continue with the operation.
After Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers, caught wind of the dire situation, he commandeered a drilling team to intervene as soon as possible.
Geohydrologist Dr Gi-deon Groenewald, pinpointed a possible drilling site, but shortly before the drilling rig was erected, a large bees’ nest was discovered in a pepper tree only a few steps away.
It was back to square one for Groenewald and Ali Sablay, project manager, who had by then already had a tough day facing red tape before finally obtaining the necessary authorisation to commence drilling on hospital terrain.
Another drilling site was consequently identified, and drilling finally started. The dedicated team worked well into the night, and drilling operations restarted before sunrise the next morning.
By lunch time, water was struck at 143m, and hospital staff were elated to see the strong blast of water shoot into the air.
Francois Herselman, manager for JM Landmann drilling services, told Komani-Karoo Express that they would aim at equipping the borehole and connect it to the hospital reservoir within this week.
In the meantime, the recently drilled borehole at the Wilhelm Stahl hospital in Middelburg, was equipped with a pump over the weekend, and a final connection to the hospital reservoir was concluded on Monday.
“We are glad to report that the bore-hole has now filled the hospital reservoir, providing the facility with a steady supply of water, despite load shedding affecting town reservoir levels,” Herselman said.
