The second SADC-GMI Young Professionals Winter School continued its momentum this week at the University of the Free State‘s Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS), with participants moving from the classroom to the field for a hands-on borehole drilling exercise. Held on Saturday, 8 August, the session was led by Prof. Modreck Gomo of the Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS) and formed a central pillar of this year’s programme, themed From Borehole to Basin: Sustainable Groundwater Management for Communities.”

Putting Theory to the Test

The purpose of the exercise was straightforward but significant: to give Young Professionals the opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge they had gained in the classroom to a real-world drilling scenario. Groundwater exploration is as much a science of prediction as it is a practice of execution, and this session was designed to test both.

Telluric Electric Frequency Selection Method

Using survey data gathered earlier in the week, the drilling team set an initial target depth of 50 metres. As drilling progressed, the borehole was extended to 54 metres to ensure an adequate water strike. A low water strike was recorded at approximately 30–31 metres, falling within the depth range the pre-drilling survey had predicted. While the resulting borehole yielded a modest flow of water, the outcome was considered a success — not because of the volume of water produced, but because it validated the accuracy of the scientific methods used to locate it.

This distinction matters. In groundwater exploration, a “successful” borehole isn’t always a high-yielding one — it’s one that confirms the reliability of the science behind the siting decision. The exercise reinforced a critical lesson for the students: that rigorous, data-driven site selection before drilling begins can reliably predict where groundwater will be found, even if it can’t always guarantee how much of it there will be.

Laying the Groundwork: GIS and Remote Sensing

Data in hand, eyes on the ground — our Young Professionals cracking the code of borehole siting!

Saturday’s drilling exercise built directly on a practical session held two days earlier, on Thursday, titled “Practical GIS and Remote Sensing for Groundwater Professionals: Drilling Site Application.” In that session, students used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geophysical survey techniques — methods that analyze subsurface geological structures — to identify and evaluate potential borehole sites.

This step is foundational to responsible groundwater development. Rather than drilling speculatively, hydrogeologists rely on evidence-based data — patterns in rock formations, soil composition, and known aquifer behaviour — to forecast where water is likely to be found and in what quantity. For the Young Professionals, mastering this skill set is essential: effective borehole siting directly influences the cost, success rate, and sustainability of water supply projects, particularly in communities where groundwater is a primary — and sometimes sole — source of water for daily life and economic activity.

Bridging the Classroom and the Field

Feedback from participants underscored just how valuable this progression from GIS analysis to physical drilling proved to be. Florence Bianca Chirwa from Malawi noted that the exercise helped them “connect classroom knowledge with practice,” a link they described as essential for any hydrogeologist working toward sustainable groundwater management. It’s a sentiment that speaks to a broader truth in technical training: understanding a concept on paper is very different from watching it play out, metre by metre, in the ground.

Prof. Gomo echoed this view, reflecting on the outcome of the drilling exercise. While the borehole itself was not high-yielding, he emphasized that the real value of the session lay elsewhere: it demonstrated to young Professionals the importance of following a rigorous, scientific process — from data collection and site selection through to execution — regardless of the final result. In his words, the experience was “very good” precisely because it taught that discipline.

From Borehole to Basin

This year’s Winter School theme, “From Borehole to Basin: Sustainable Groundwater Management for Communities,” captures the broader philosophy underpinning both practical sessions. Groundwater management cannot be viewed narrowly, at the scale of a single well serving a single community — it must also be understood within the context of entire aquifer systems and river basins, where decisions in one location can have ripple effects across a wider hydrological network.

By training Young Professionals to think and work across this full spectrum — from precise, localized borehole siting to basin-scale governance — the Winter School is equipping the next generation of groundwater practitioners with the dual skill set needed to secure water resources sustainably: sound scientific judgment at the local level, and strategic foresight at the regional level.

As the Winter School progresses, these practical sessions serve as a reminder that sustainable groundwater management begins with getting the fundamentals right — one carefully sited borehole at a time.

It started with data. It ends with water. Borehole successfully drilled and cased!