Page 22 - Landscape SA 96

IRRIGATION FEATURE

Combining science and faith, Dr Gideon Groenewald has been able to find water
in drought-stricken South Africa to help poor communities

GROUNDWATER TO RELIEVE

DROUGHT

When he was 12 years old on a farm in Aliwal North, Dr Gideon Groenewald’s family ran
out of water at their house. That was the moment he started a journey that shaped him
into a man with an uncanny ability to find water in drought-stricken South Africa.

asked my father how he found water legendary, making him something of a East London, Adelaide, Graaf Reinet and
“I under the ground,” said the man who mythical figure. then back to Pretoria. It took me 11 years,
prefers to be called Oom Gideon. “He I measured all the mountains in 10cm
taught me the methodology of using trees He is the lead geologist for Gift of the intervals. I can, in 10cm intervals, show
and branches to find water.” Givers, a position he took up in 2015 after you story of the mountains of South Africa,
the sudden loss of his wife of 29 years. He when it rained, when there was a drought
Oom Gideon has been studying ground was living in Clarens at the time, working or a flood. By doing this I managed to do
water since the age of 12. He went to as a palaeontologist. He now lives in Graaf an in-depth study of how much water
university to study it. He walked the length Reinet, but travels the country with Gift of there was, and where,” said Groenewald.
and breadth of South African studying it. the Givers, seeking sites for boreholes to
He has three doctorates in palaeontology, help desperate and needy communities. His wife had walked 40 000km with him for
hydrology and geology, and uses all three 11 years and four days before her death, a
of these sciences, as well as an unwavering “As a geologist I studied the entire country Sesotho prophet told him: “Your wife will
spiritual faith, to mark the sites for of South Africa. In 1979 to 1996, there leave you, but a small group of people will
boreholes. His ability to find underground were no cellphones and no GPS's. I walked start working with you and you will find
water in the most parched of places is from Vryheid in KZN on foot. I walked to water for children.”

20 Landscape SA • Issue 96 2020