By Tanya Carbajal
Borderzine
Water witching (also called divining or water dowsing) is a practice used to locate ground water using a stick, rod, pendulum, or something similar. With the drought going on in the El Paso area, a lot of people are searching to have wells built for their farm or backyard.
Robert Garcia is someone people go to before they begin the process of starting a water well, which can cost up to thousands of dollars. He said he uses the technique of water witching to identify the best location for finding water.
Who can do it?
According to Garcia, water witching is a gift that you have to have, it can’t be taught.
His grandfather was the one that showed him that he had the gift of witching. His grandfather preferred to use sticks, but Garcia now uses metal rods. Garcia’s father and two brothers tried to witch but they were not gifted with it, he said.
“It has to be given to you and not everyone can have it,”
How is water witching done?
On a recent assignment, the client wanted a witcher to look at his property and determine the locations that would give him the most amount of water. Garcia got to work and took two bronze rods from his back pocket. The client told him where he would like the well to be located and Garcia started searching from there.
He walked slowly in a straight line with the two rods in his hands searching for the veins of water that run underground.
Garcia said that when he witches he feels…
Finish reading Sticks beat science in low-cost search for water during El Paso’s ongoing drought
