Groundwater forms an important part of the water resources of South Africa, especially in Karoo region, where groundwater is an important source of fresh water. Beaufort West is a town that uses groundwater as a major source of municipal and private water supply. Groundwater samples were collected from a network of 43 boreholes, between November 2015 to December 2018 within Beaufort West town and 10km radius surrounding. The water samples were analysed for inorganics, organics, stable isotopes and radioactive isotopes.

Governing groundwater in a way that does not deplete the source of water, nor cause any form of degradation is a global challenge. In South Africa, scholarship shows an extensive history of groundwater governance doctrines. Yet, the country’s groundwater remained a poorly governed resource. A recent regulatory regime change culminated in the National Water Act 36 of 1998 (NWA), which was specifically promulgated to ‘provide for fundamental reform of the law relating to water resources’.