Under law, borehole water can’t be sold

IN reply to R B’s chirp, “So borehole water isn’t mine?” (December 30), no R B, the water in your borehole definitely does not belong to you. You may own the hole, but the water taken from it is for the benefit of all of us, who do not “own” it either.

Under the National Water Act, an unregistered suburban borehole permits only schedule one water, which only allows you to take water for drinking, to water your (non-commercial) garden and to water your animals. By taking any more than that, you are lowering/depleting the water table of all the people living around you, perhaps even in your whole suburb or further, depending on the size of the aquifer.

To sell any of it is against the law and quite rightly so.

The only fault that I can find with councillor Annette Lovemore’s action (and by implication that of the metro council) is that the fine is far too low – R10 000 has a much better ring to it in view of the substantial profits that these illegal water sellers are pocketing (“Borehole water sellers face R1 000 fine”, December 28).

One guy with a borehole, in my neighbourhood, has a truck with two large PVC tanks on it (10 000 litres, I presume) with a sign advertising the load at R800 a time. Perhaps the council could consider confiscation of the tanks if a transgressor repeats the offence.

A telephone inquiry revealed that one seller had a waiting list to February!

Even the traffic department and/or the roads engineers should be interested. A load of 10 000 litres of water weighs 10 000kg and some of the trucks I’ve seen transporting PVC tanks with water around town don’t look like 10-tonners to me.

The damage to our roads by overloaded vehicles is quite apparent – just go to the La Roche Drive and Strandfontein Road intersection to see the potholes that result!

Perhaps The Herald should consider a brief informative article on what the Water Act prescribes about boreholes.

A C, Port Elizabeth