National Groundwater Archive (NGA)

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You can find the following information on the Department of Water and Sanitation’s website by clicking here.

What is the National Groundwater Archive (NGA)?

The NGA is the web enabled database system that allows capturing, viewing, modifying and extraction (dissemination) of groundwater related data.

Why the NGA?

The DWA has a legal obligation to ensure that water resources (including groundwater) are protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in a sustainable and equitable manner.

The National Water Act (NWA) (Act No 36 of 1998), Chapter 14 Part 2 requires the establishment of national monitoring and information systems because the availability of information about water resources is regarded as critical to the main purpose of the NWA. Section 139.2 (a) refers specifically to a national groundwater information system, which translates to the National Groundwater Information System (NGIS) Portfolio.

Within the NGIS Portfolio, the NGA is the largest system.

The need for groundwater data and information continues to increase to assist in planning to provide water to people, monitoring, drought relief and climate change

What is the philosophy behind NGA?

  • Based on the Standard Descriptors for Geosites (SDG)

  • Web based and therefore gives immediate and direct access to clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

  • User friendly, with minimum clicks and easy navigation

  • No codes to unravel with dropdown menus to assist the user

  • Minimum business rules enable more accessibility to data owners

  • Data ownership is with the data producer

What are the benefits of the NGA?

  • Accessible 24 hours a day

  • No license fees

  • Accredited National Groundwater system of choice

  • Data owners control their own data

What functionalities are currently available?

  • External Users can register as ‘Data Capturer’ or ‘Inquirer’. Internal Users can have various other roles.

  • Users can search in versatile ways for existing records

  • Extensive export capabilities

What business modules are currently available?

Currently there are 23 business modules available on the NGA.

What future functionalities can be expected?

  • Extended Geology Elements (e.g. stratigraphy, penetration rate, geological log)

  • Potential multi-media extension

  • Visual (Spatial) interface