There are encouraging signs that groundwater reserves on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands are large enough to supplement the existing water supply during times of low rainfall and drought.
A group of eight researchers from the Pacific Community - or SPC - and the Cook Islands government spent two weeks investigating previously untapped water sources to determine how much water they might be able to provide to the island.
The SPC's Peter Sinclair told Tim Glasgow the initial signs are very promising.
Aitutaki, Cook Islands.
Photo: Ewan Smith
Transcript
PETER SINCLAIR: What the team was looking for was targets of deeper fresh ground water and also assess what the shallow ground water resources were. So we used resistivity - which is a geophysical toll which pushes electricity into the ground and then measures the response back through the ground. Different rocks give different electrical responses and rocks with water give a different response. So from that we can identify zones of higher fresh water yield that are likely, and therefor they became targets for drilling.
TIM GLASGOW: So while the team was over what did they actually find?
PS: What we found were that there are zones in the deeper groundwater system which look attractive to drilling. So they show up as being potentially higher-yielding fresh water sources. So we know that water is often contained within fractures within rocks, so what we're targeting is those fractures which will allow water to move through, and into a bore, and then out. So we've identified in some of the volcanics of Aitutaki that there were some certain zones or targets at depths that we could drill or potentially drill and have increased yields from it. We also looked at some of the shallow ground water just to see where the depth of that fresh water is at.
TG: Did it indicate that there would be enough to start supplementing the fresh water supply as it it?
PS: Yip. The survey identified quite a number of targets and those targets look quite attractive and we're encouraged by the results. We are able to identify with our data sets - our survey, where the high yields targets are likely to be. So from that we believe there's water to provide a significant amount of supplementary water to support the existing water supply system. But at the end of the day we've actually got to drill it to actually prove it. But certainly they're encouraging results.
TG: What's the next step?
PS: They would need to bring in a drilling rig and we have been in discussions with the Aitutaki government around that. A drill rig needs to come in and drill those targets and once those targets hit the water we would develop up to see how much water and what that quality of the water is. And from that we will be able to determine how that would feed into the existing water system.
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