How Location and Condition Affects Borehole Water Quality in Zimbabwe

Because you depend on your Boreholes as the main water source, you must take steps to ensure that your Borehole water maintains its quality and stays usable and drinkable.

If your Borehole is old and you haven't checked its water quality in a while, or you just bought a new property with an old Borehole then you may want to reassess that Borehole's condition and location.

Here is some important information about how your Borehole water may become contaminated, the most common types of contaminants, and why you may need a new Borehole.

Ways That Borehole Water Can Be Contaminated: 

Borehole water is especially vulnerable to contamination because your Borehole is drawing up water from a shared aquifer that likely lies under, and is used by, several nearby properties. Each of these properties is used in a different way and some of those uses may affect your groundwater quality.

Here Are Some Reasons Why Your Borehole May Become Contaminated:

1. Your Borehole is Too Close to a Contaminating Source: Certain changes to your property directly affect the quality of the groundwater that reaches the Borehole. For example, a nearby auto shop could leak automobile fluids which can seep into the groundwater nearest your Borehole.

How Location and Condition Affects Borehole Water Quality in Zimbabwe

2. Your Borehole Casing is Breaking Down: Your Borehole casing not only protects your pump and other electrical systems, it also offers some protection against contaminants. Cracks in the casing may allow contaminated water located closer to the surface, which has had less time to filter through the soil, to seep into your Borehole.

3. Your Property Has an Abandoned Borehole: You may have an unused, improperly abandoned, Borehole on your property and not even know about it. This unsealed or poorly sealed Borehole could leak contaminants into your groundwater if it shares the same aquifer.

4. Your Neighbor's Activities Are Contaminating your Borehole: Chances are that your neighbourhood has changed over the years since your Borehole was built. This may mean that your neighbours changed their land use during this time. For example, your neighbours may have stayed far away from the Borehole when it was first built but have since decided to raise animals and are now creating containments near the Borehole.

At the time your Borehole was built, the location may have been perfect, but circumstances changed. While the Borehole still draws water and the parts and pumps are still in good working order, the groundwater in that location may no longer be ideal.

5. Types of Common Borehole Contaminants: Borehole water contamination comes in many forms, some of which are biological, and some are chemicals. Some are naturally occurring and eliminated through filtering, while others are more difficult to screen out. Here is a list of some of the more common Borehole contaminants:

• Bacterial contamination from faecal matter, decaying plants and animals, and viruses.
• Nitrates from the natural breakdown of organic material in the soil.
• Fertilizers that aren't Borehole managed and wash into the water sources.
• Metals either naturally from the ground or as a result of industrial operations.

Some of these problems are resolvable by relining your Borehole or treating the water. However, if your Borehole is damaged, or the groundwater is contaminated, then the problem becomes more complicated.

If you have found that your Borehole is contaminated or has other problems that are beyond repair, then you may want to seal that Borehole and dig a new one. 

Borehole Experts Zimbabwe and Mutare Boreholes can both help you install a new Borehole as well as properly seal your old one so that it does not cause groundwater problems. 

Contact us today for an appointment and we will give you an estimate.