Dowsing use by staff
Mark Honeychurch made this Official Information request to Auckland Council
The request was successful.
From: Mark Honeychurch
Tēnā koutou,
I am interested in the use of dowsing techniques by employees and contractors used by your council when working with water, e.g. pipe leaks, water sources, etc. It has been recently found in the UK that this technique is used by local authorities:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/201...
Please release the following information:
1. If any Auckland Council staff use dowsing as part of their job
2. If any contractors employed by Auckland Council use dowsing as part of their work when engaged by the Council
3. If any dowsing companies explicitly offering dowsing services have been engaged by the Council.
4. For any of the above, what costs were incurred by the Council.
Please give me this information for as long as records are available.
If any part of my request is unclear, please don't hesitate to contact me.
As a New Zealand citizen, I am eligible to make requests under the OIA.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Honeychurch
Mark Honeychurch left an annotation ()
Thanks for your ideas, Luke. Given that 10 out of 12 water companies in the UK use dowsing, I'm wondering if it may happen over here despite how daft it sounds!
Luke C left an annotation ()
Mark, given that 10 out of 12 companies (83%) of companies use dowsing, they must find this a reliable method, otherwise they wouldn't be using dowsers.
Mark Honeychurch left an annotation ()
Luke, as a skeptic I have to disagree with you there! There are many things that governments and other organisations do that aren't effective. The fact that someone spends money on something does not in any way prove that it works.
In fact, there are information requests on this website that prove our own government spends millions every year on things that don't work - ACC wastes a lot of public money on ineffective pseudoscientific treatments such as acupuncture and chiropractic.
From: DHickson (Debbie)
Attention: Mr Mark Honeychurch
Good morning Sir
On behalf of David Hawkins, please see the attached letter in response to
your recent request for information.
Regards
Debbie Hickson
Personal Assistant to Chief Executive
Watercare Services Limited
show quoted sections
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Offensive? Unsuitable?
Requests for personal information and vexatious requests are not considered valid requests for Official Information (read more).
If you believe this request is not suitable, you can report it for attention by the site administrators
Report this request
Luke C left an annotation ()
It would be very interesting to see whether there are any water dowsers used by the Council, though I doubt it. Council staff involved in water management will be geologists who will rely on proven scientific techniques and I don't think they are open minded to other alternative methods like dowsing, but I am happy to be proven wrong.
Often local newspapers carry stories of dowsers who have found water sources, though not necessarily for territorial authorities. You could try INNZ (Index New Zealand), NewsText (a subscription service that indexes newspaper articles that the National Library subscribes to), or the google news archive, to find such stories. Consult your public library for help on this matter.
Link to this