Grounded in water

Update

SEDGEFIELD NEWS - Slow Town resident Ritchie Morris was last week honoured with a prestigious award from the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) at the organisation's AGM which was held in Wuhan, China, on Tuesday 20 September.

Morris received the Applied Hydrogeology Award for his work in developing and managing a groundwater supply near Sedgefield.

Morris developed a wellfield to supply 4,5ML/d of water needed to preserve timber damaged by the fire that swept through Knysna and surrounds in June 2017.

The salvaged timber had to be stacked and kept saturated to preserve it until it could be processed in the local sawmills.

The Applied Hydrogeology Award is presented annually to a groundwater professional who has made outstanding contributions to the application of hydrogeology, particularly in developing countries or in support of international development efforts.

The IAH was founded in 1956 and has a world-wide membership of more than 4 000 scientists, engineers, water managers and other professionals working in the fields of groundwater resource planning, management and protection.

But, who is Ritchie Morris? We take some time to get to know the award-winning hydrogeologist.

The early years

Morris (63) was born and raised in Beacon Bay, which at the time was outside East London but has since been incorporated into the greater East London. "It was an era of 'free range kids' and spending much time in the bush, beach and rivers. So the Eastern Cape was my home range and I love the Transkei coast," Morris recalls.

He attended De La Salle College for the entirety of his schooling career, before spending two years serving in the SA Navy.

Following that he pursued a BSc with majors in geology and geography at Rhodes University. and did post-graduate studies in the geography department with four modules - hydrogeology, applied hydrology, earth surface processes and water resources management. "It was an excellent degree mix."

Professional life

After completing his post-graduate studies, Morris began working with a Cape Town-based company where he was tasked with managing the field work for the groundwater component of the Ciskei National Water Plan.

"This four-year project entailed geological mapping, siting, drilling and testing of boreholes for village water supplies throughout rural Ciskei, and some work in the former Transkei," he explained.

Further work saw him involved with borehole-drilling in Graaff Reinet - a supply still in use today. In the 90s he changed course and did several courses in subsurface contamination and remediation.

Before the turn of the millennium, Morris and his wife Mary-Jane (they've been married for 31 years now) started their own consultancy with the aim of pulling together project teams with the right set of skills to meet clients' needs.

A successful 14 years later he and his wife escaped the congestion and smog of Cape Town and bought a smallholding just outside Sedgefield, which they have called home for the past nine years.

April Fool's articles

Avid readers of Group Editors publications may recognise Morris' name for a slightly different reason – his wicked April Fool's articles. Surprisingly he wasn't a jokester at school, but he does have a great sense of humour.

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"Life should not be too serious all of the time," he said. "Work hard and play hard. We really do need some light-hearted humour to perk up our days and the April Fool's stories are meant to do that. If we could all just smile a lot more at each other and greet each other it would be so lekker, and we would all benefit as society."

Hydrogeology

While some might confuse hydrology and hydrogeology, they are in fact two distinct and very different fields of work, said Morris. "Hydrology is the science of surface water. To be a hydrogeologist one (preferably) needs a good background in geology. Hydrogeology deals with groundwater," he said. His love for and fascination with hydrogeology is rather deep-rooted.

"Since childhood I have enjoyed the outdoors and thus the natural (earth) sciences appealed to me. Geography was a favourite subject at school. When choosing my university majors, the subjects of geology and geography married well," he said.

"There is a need for good practical hydrogeologists and I encourage any youngsters who love the outdoors and aren't scared of hard work to follow this as a career."

Highlights

Over the course of his lengthy career in hydrogeology Morris has naturally had a host of high points. But, a few stand out:

His work in the Ciskei National Water Plan in the 80s
Working on site for five years during the decommissioning of the old AECI dynamite factory in Somerset West
A 20-year project for the decommissioning of the old Kynoch fertiliser factory in Milnerton
Working on the Development and Utilisation Plan for the De Hoop Nature Reserve (1993-94) with his wife
And the phenomenal work he has done with local groundwater that has earned him his international award

Water in the Garden Route

"The era of a water supply coming from only one resource is over. The future, due to rapid urbanisation, population growth and changing climactic factors, is that we need to make good use of all available water resources. So conjunctive water supply schemes are the future, i.e. surface, groundwater and recycled waste water," said Morris about possible solutions to water problems in the Garden Route.

"Ideally we should not be flushing high quality water down the toilet and washing our cars with it, but dual water reticulation in old towns and cities will be difficult to implement.

"Conjunctive supply is likely to be far better for the environment, instead of trying to abstract all the water out of one resource, for example pumping so much water from a river that there is no flow below the abstraction point and the river's environmental reserve is robbed."

Morris is also a keen amateur photographer.

Using groundwater

Morris also feels that groundwater should not be seen as just an emergency source of supply during drought, as it is so often perceived to be.

"It is part of the overall solution and must receive much more consideration at the municipal planning level - even if a known groundwater resource does get 'banked' for future use, in which case measures must be put in place to ensure that it is protected and does not become contaminated," he said.

"Future planning needs to consider the carrying capacity and water is probably the most important ecological aspect within carrying capacity."

One of Morris' favourite pastimes is fishing.