The Magic and Mystery of Siting Boreholes

The Borehole Siting Team arrive in Gokwe, ready to do magic!

Almost invariably when I introduce myself as a Hydrogeologist engaged among other things with using groundwater sustainability and drilling boreholes, I'm thrown the question: do I use a stick or rods to dowse for water. Typically, the comment is pushed at me with a gentle smirk and a cheeky giggle at others present, as if I really believe in Father Christmas...but still hopeful that he does exist.

We are an odd species, humans. In our modern form, we proudly place ourselves above so-called superstitions and magic, superior in our rationalism and logic which has produced the iPhone, antibiotics and Love Island (a reality TV show). We have outgrown, so we think, the myths and stories of our ancestors. We pooh pooh the old Sky Gods and spiritual talk of our grandparents and their grandparents, preferring to believe in...well, what? G K Chesterton is quoted as saying: “When (people) choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”

As Yuval Harari has pointed out, we remain a species who still love, and need, to believe in stories. Harry Potter will always outsell the latest science book. 

And so, we remain with the magic of Siting a Borehole. The wonder and power of Water. It's mystery described in every religion as a symbol of divine Presence, of Wisdom, and of Life itself. As we now know, it is the source of Life according to science, belatedly to the party. So there must be secret forces which speak to us through the Earth to guide the locating of boreholes, using sticks and metal. 

I love this, because it indicates that we feel deep down a sense that There Has to be More than just Matter and Earth, physicality. We have a yearning for Something More Than. Bigger than. 

I fully agree with them, I should say. Water is such a mysterious substance, a weird and wonderful molecule made up of two elements, oxygen and hydrogen, which by themselves are unique, explosive and deadly dangerous. But strangely, when combined they form this H2O which is the only substance we know of with odd properties. It expands as it freezes, so ice floats, the only case of the solid form being lighter than the liquid form. Thus protecting life under water as a pond freezes. It can act as an acid or alkali, making it the general purpose medium to dissolve anything and everything. And so much more that makes it perfect for birthing Life.

It's property as a bipolar molecule creates an electromagnetic field as it moves, allowing instruments to measure flowing water - used nowadays in Electromagnetic Flowmeters. And this is the potential link. Yes, moving water creates an electric field, which has the potential to be picked up...but how?

Taking Resistivity Readings.

In Zimbabwe we insert a clause in the Drilling Contract which requires the Contractors to arrange the siting of the Borehole at their expense. We specify that resistivity geophysics must be part of it, but otherwise it is for them to do their own "magic". And so it happens. 

In a context where anything can be believed and little peer reviewing is possible, the Chinese and other players have stepped in with their Water Finders. I know that Carl Sagan once said that: Future technology will seem like magic to us today. And these gadgets offer magic with pretty lights of all colours.

Hamlet muses There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Ultimately, we do get stakes out into the ground, measurements and discussions and agreements on where to drill. But the best sites are based on looking at the context with thought, following the stories from previous borehole and wells in the areas and simply observing the surface life and features. A green tree fruiting and thriving in a dry landscape is accessing a deep water source. Listen, look and learn from the past and what's around you.

Thus it has always been.

Sandy Elsworth 16 January 2025