The Challenge
Game farming in the Eastern Cape presents a specific and demanding set of water infrastructure requirements. A game reserve operates across a large land area — often many hundreds of hectares — and the animals that live on it need reliable access to water at multiple points distributed across the property. This is not a single-point water supply problem. It is a distributed network problem, and one that the conventional approach of piping water from a central source rarely solves well at scale.
The game reserve at the centre of this case study had no municipal or scheme water supply available across the property. The terrain was variable, with open grassland sections, dense bush, and drainage lines creating natural barriers to surface pipe reticulation. The reserve operator had been dependent on seasonal waterholes and temporary water trucking during dry periods — an arrangement that was both costly and unreliable.
For game animals, water stress is not merely an inconvenience: it concentrates animals in ways that damage vegetation around the remaining water sources, disrupts natural movement patterns, and in severe dry spells, leads to animal losses. The operator needed a solution that could supply consistent, year-round water to several strategically located watering points across the reserve, without relying on grid electricity or ongoing fuel costs.
The Core Problem
No reliable reticulated water supply was available across the property. The reserve needed multiple independent water points distributed across its extent — reliable through the dry season, requiring no grid power, and practical to maintain by farm staff without specialised technical skills.
A single borehole at one point on the property could not solve this. The distances involved made centralised pumping and distribution uneconomical and vulnerable to a single point of failure. Each watering point needed its own independent groundwater source.
The Everest Approach
Everest Drilling's engagement with this project began not with a drill rig but with a geophysical survey — the correct starting point for any multi-borehole project where both the presence of groundwater and the most productive drilling locations need to be established before commitment to capital expenditure.
Step 1: Multi-site geophysical survey. Everest's survey team conducted electrical resistivity surveys at multiple candidate locations across the farm, selected in consultation with the reserve operator based on proximity to the intended watering point positions. Each candidate site was surveyed to map the subsurface geology, identify fracture zones, dolerite contacts, and other structural features likely to carry groundwater, and determine the optimal drilling depth for each target.
The Eastern Cape interior is characterised by Karoo Supergroup sedimentary rocks intruded by dolerite sills and dykes. Water in this geology is hosted not in the rock matrix but in the fracture zones created at the contacts between dolerite and the surrounding mudstone and siltstone. These contact zones can be precisely located with electrical resistivity survey methods, dramatically reducing the risk of drilling a dry or low-yield hole.
Step 2: Sequential drilling at confirmed targets. Working from the geophysical survey results, Everest mobilised drill rigs to each of the confirmed target sites in turn. Each borehole was drilled to the depth determined by the survey, penetrating through the weathered overburden and into the productive fractured zone identified by the resistivity data. Upon completion of drilling at each site, a yield assessment was conducted before the borehole was cased and completed. Boreholes were cased with appropriate diameter uPVC casing and screen sections installed opposite the water-bearing zones, ensuring that the completed installation would perform reliably over its service life.
Step 3: Solar pump installation. At each completed borehole, a submersible solar pump was installed at the appropriate depth, sized to match the available yield and the daily water demand of the watering point it was to serve. Solar borehole pumps operate during daylight hours, using photovoltaic panels mounted near the borehole head to power the pump directly — with no battery bank required when a storage tank is used as the buffer. Each pump was connected to an elevated polyethylene storage tank positioned to gravity-feed the watering trough below it.
Step 4: Storage tanks and watering point fitting. At each location, a correctly sized storage tank was installed on a concrete platform at sufficient elevation to provide gravity head to the watering trough. The tank acts as the day's accumulated pump output, ensuring that wildlife have access to water continuously — including during the night and on overcast days when the solar pump may not be running at full capacity. Float valves and overflow provisions were included to prevent tank overfill and manage surplus water safely. Troughs were fitted at ground level, accessible to all game species using the area.
The result was a series of completely independent, self-contained water supply units distributed across the reserve — each consisting of a borehole, a solar pump, a storage tank, and a watering trough. No interconnection between sites was required. Each unit operated autonomously.
The Outcome
On completion of the project, the game reserve had reliable, independently operating water points distributed across its extent for the first time. The transition from seasonal dependence and periodic water trucking to a permanent groundwater-based supply had an immediate effect on how animals moved across and used the reserve. Natural dispersal of game across the full extent of the property increased as animals were no longer concentrated around the limited water sources that had previously been available.
The system operates entirely off-grid. There are no electricity accounts, no fuel costs, and no generator servicing requirements associated with the water supply infrastructure. The solar pumps are low-maintenance by design — submersible units with no above-ground moving parts, operating within a sealed borehole environment. Routine maintenance is limited to periodic inspection of the solar panels, float valves, and troughs — tasks that farm management staff can undertake without specialist support.
Everest Drilling guarantees the depth of the borehole as quoted and drilled. Each borehole was delivered to the depth specified in the quotation, providing the reserve operator with a clear and enforceable record of what was installed at each site.
The reserve now carries water security through the full dry season without supplementary input, and the system has no single point of failure: if any one borehole or pump unit requires attention, the remaining watering points continue to operate independently.
Key Takeaways
- Geophysical survey first. On a large, geologically variable property, drilling without a survey is a gamble. Survey data allowed each borehole to be positioned at a confirmed groundwater target — not at an approximation of where water might be found.
- Multiple independent units beat a single centralised system. For a distributed watering point network on a large reserve, independent borehole-pump-tank units at each site are more resilient, simpler to maintain, and avoid the cost and vulnerability of long surface pipe runs across difficult terrain.
- Solar pumps suit off-grid agricultural applications. Where grid electricity is unavailable or impractical to extend, solar borehole pumps are a proven solution. Paired with a storage tank, they deliver continuous water availability without fuel, batteries, or grid dependency.
- Tank sizing matters. Each storage tank was sized to hold the volume needed to meet animal demand through a full night and low-sun day. Correct tank sizing ensures watering points do not run dry between pump operating periods.
- Eastern Cape geology rewards targeted drilling. Dolerite contact zones in the Karoo Supergroup are productive drilling targets — but they need to be located. A geophysical survey is the tool that makes this possible, and on a multi-borehole project it pays for itself many times over in reduced drilling risk.
- Contact for a project-specific quotation. Game farm borehole projects are scoped site by site. Pricing depends on the number of boreholes, distances between sites, pump sizing, tank volumes, and access conditions. Contact Everest Drilling for a project-specific quotation tailored to your reserve.