Development of web-based GIS for the management of boreholes: a case of Chilenje and Chalala townships.

Domestic and commercial groundwater usage is inevitable in the absence of adequate utility
water supply in terms of availability, quality, cost and pressure. This may lead to people
accessing ground water via the use of boreholes. In some areas boreholes are drilled for business
purposes. There are different mechanisms for drilling these boreholes. The massive borehole
drilling has a great effect on ground water. The ground water might be contaminated as these
boreholes are sunk right next to septic tanks. An improperly designed, located, constructed, or
maintained septic system can leak bacteria, viruses, household chemicals, and other contaminants
into the groundwater causing serious problems. In order to control and manage the usage of
ground water responsible authorities require the necessary type of information to support
decision-making and access to the resource. The objective of this study was to develop a Mobile
based geographical information system for the management of boreholes in Chalala and Chilenje
Townships. A mobile phone GPS facility was used to map the boreholes. This connects to the
geographical information systems (GIS) database that stores all spatial data for the operational
areas. An Android Mobile phone was acquired and the GEO-ODK application was installed on it
for data collection. The GPS location is the key for data analysis. The same Android phone was
used by the Hydrologists employed by the ministry to do spot checks on areas where people have
sunk the boreholes. The Geo-ODK is open source software. The system is based on open source
application and PostgreSQL was/’ used for database management. The system has to be able to
be connected with other GIS applications for future enhancements. There is need to enhance this
system in future to enable it provide real time data.