a) The groundwater was discovered by the Council for Geoscience (CGS) during the execution of the Karoo Deep Drilling baseline and geo-environmental study for the purposes of possible shale gas exploration. Two high-yielding boreholes were donated (at no cost to the municipality) to the Beaufort West Municipality who incurred the cost of the pumping infrastructure for one of the borehole. Although the CGS spent just over R495 000 to drill the two boreholes, the value of the water provided to the water-scarce municipality (to assist just over 44 000 people) is in the order of R1 million per month and could easily reach about R13 million a month based on level 6 water restriction rates for the Western Cape Province.
b) The CGS spent about R423 000 towards the handover ceremony. Flight and accommodation of CGS personnel have not been included in these calculations.
c) The CGS selected the service providers through the Beaufort West Municipality supplier chain department. The procedures were followed accordingly.