MORE than $530,000 worth of mechanical spare parts for water well drilling machines have been donated to the Mineral Resources Department.

The spare parts, given as development aid by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is needed to service the department’s two drilling machines.

Department principal hydrologist Malakai Finau said JICA had given the two waterwell drilling machines in 1981 and 1994 respectively and the spare parts for the machines were given for servicing purposes as the department had been repairing them.

“They not only gave the spare parts but also an engineer to assist in the servicing of the machines,” he said.

He said what the department did through the use of the machines was to develop ground water or water in rural areas.

“The machines are used to drill boreholes as the demand for water in rural areas is increasing as some areas were not supplied while in other areas water was not readily available,” said Mr Finau.

“The two machines are mounted on trucks and are used in areas that are accessible by road,” he said.

Mr Finau said the department had been hired in the past to dig areas for companies that bottled mineral water and had recently been hired by dairy and poultry farmers to search for water sources. He said one of the machines had travelled as far as Lakeba in the Lau Group.