IN less than a week after pastor Nico Luther, from the Lux Deo congregation in Middelburg, appealed to Gift of the Givers (GOTG) for aid in restoring the Wilhelm Stahl hospital’s borehole, his prayers have been answered.
“Over the last few months, the town has experienced serious issues with water supply, and the hospital is adversely affected by this,” he wrote in his email to Dr Imtiaz Sooliman of GOTG. “They do have a water tank, but it has to service 180 toilets, bathrooms, the kitchen and all other water requirements.
“It is not nearly sufficient to provide for all the needs of the hospital, and should the hospital experience an extended period of water shortage, the facility will run out of water. The hospital does have a borehole, but it has not been used for a long time and it is not currently working,” Luther wrote on Monday last week.
Less than 24 hours later, Francois Herselman, a manager from JM Landmann Drilling Operations, came to assess the borehole. After consulting with drilling specialist, Martyn Landmann, and geohydrologist, Dr Gideon Groenewald, it was decided that drilling a new borehole would be the best course of action.
On Wednesday afternoon, the drilling team of Mpiyakhe Mofokeng, Simon Mokoena and January Mokhonaze arrived and set up the rig, immediately after receiving the new coordinates from Dr Groenewald.
Komani-Karoo Express witnessed as Mofokeng expertly pinpointed the exact drilling location on the ground. On Thursday, project manager, Heinrich Erasmus, joined the team, and drilling continued until late that night.
“We had to go through a thick bank of dolerite starting at 6m and only giving way at 41m,” Erasmus said.
The team’s persistence was finally rewarded on Friday afternoon around 12:00 when they struck water at 143m.
Preliminary measurements indicate that the borehole will yield around 8 000 litres of water per hour.
Hospital manager, Annerie Rautenbach, said staff were overjoyed when the news about the water spread.
“We are deeply thankful to Gift of the Givers. This miracle of water at the end of 2019 will help us continue to do our best in providing medical care for the community of Middelburg,” Rautenbach said.
This week, the team returned to insert casings. The water quality will now be tested by a SANAS-accredited laboratory, while Gift of the Givers will equip the borehole and erect a number of JoJo tanks.
