Value of underground water emphasised

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33092, 6 December 1972, Page 19

Value of underground water emphasised

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright; NEW YORK, December 5. Countries should sell well water to emphasise its value, according to a United Nations report.

“Ground water ... is too often considered an inexhaustible resource, and its development is too often considered in an anarchic manner, the hydrogeologists being called in only when emergency situations develop,” the United Nations Committee on Natural Resources say in a report to be debated at its third session in New Delhi in February. “Pumped water should be sold to the public, even at a token rate, to demonstrate that it is a valuable commodity, and a resource that is to be saved and protected,” the committee suggests.

“It should be brought to the attention of governments, and of the public, that

such water is a natural underground resource which should be prospected in a similar way to underground mineral and energy resources. ”... Wells generally supply safer drinking water than surface sources, such as rivers and streams, but the exploration, assessment, and development of ground water resources are complex operations involving a high input of scientific and technical knowhow. “As a result, developing countries tend to look at digging and maintaining wells as a luxury, not as a major resource, until they are compelled to it by necessity in an emergency situation, when circumstances do not enable them to deal with the matter properly.”