Water diviner points the way to drilling of new borehole

IN AN ISLAND such as Herm, there are a lot of things you can't take for granted – and drinking water is one of them. All of its water comes from boreholes and a new one has just had to be created.

'We have had to drill as Moss Borehole, which was one of our most productive sources, suddenly stopped producing water about six weeks ago,' said director of technical services Simon George.

'This is despite the island water table being at a fairly high level after the wet winter.'

'After a number of checks were carried out, including fitting a new pump, we were still unable to achieve the necessary amount of water required from the well, thus the decision was made to drill a new one.'

It costs £10,000 to sink a borehole, so the most important factor is making sure the drilling is in the right place. In such a technological age, you may be surprised to learn that this large financial investment rests on the age-old method of water divining.

The island called in Pat Lloyd, a well-known local diviner who has worked with the island on previous boreholes, to determine the best location for the new supply.

'We then brought in Geomarine to drill the hole,' said Simon. 'This involved shipping over their equipment on a couple of late evening, back-to-back cargo runs.'

The deliveries had to be on a spring tide so that the heavy equipment could be driven straight onto the boat.

'The borehole was drilled to 90m in total, after which a couple of workers from Stan Brouard came and installed the liner.'

There was much excitement on the morning it was announced that the team was about to hit water and the schoolchildren raced round to witness a big waterspout that erupted like oil out of the ground.

There are many things on Herm that seem to appear effortlessly, but which are actually the product of a lot of

hard work behind the scenes.

It is nice to know there will be plenty of fresh water to hand for the summer ahead.