As former employee for the GTZ (German technical aid agency) in Eschborn he was responsible for ground water prospection, using unconventional methods of dowsing and geophysics . The GTZ project in Sri Lanka in the early 80s (drinking water supply and sanitation project in Sri Lanka) in the northern dry zone of the island was the start of an extraordinary water detection of Hans Schröter with the dowsing rod (for this reason we will go into more detail of this project) radiesthesia came into successful use on a large scale; in total (following projects e.g. on Verde Island / Philippines, Congo, Niger, Yemen, Capverde Islands, Sinai, Kenya and Namibia) more than 1000 drinking wells were put into place.

Sri Lanka 1982 - 1985. Within only 3 ½ years, more than 600 deep wells were built for 350 villages in the northern dry zone of Sri Lanka (Vavuniya und Mullaitivu) to provide the population with pure drinking water throughout the year. Especially in the extreme dry season, when the traditional shallow dug wells (5-9m deep, in resudial soil above the crystalline basement) dry up. Hans Schröter has proven to have the capability to pinpoint a high proportion of his wells on the narrow fractures in the crystalline rock, as the northern part of the island has turned out to be quite a difficult terrain, hydrogeologically speaking. Today 96 % of the boreholes with an average depth of 35m provide sufficient drinking water for the population; the average yield being 25-30 l/min, with a max. of 90 l/min. As Hans Schröter was able to predetermine the quality of water by the water devining method when the site was selected, only very few wells had to be closed due to the quality requirements not met.

This project was successfully operated with relatively little personnel and with only two relatively light bore devices, thus very cost and time effective. This could not have been expected without the committment of such a talented dowser.

The way in which Schröters dowsing enabled such a large number of wells to be brought on stream in a relatively short time made the Sri Lanka drinking water project one of the most successful ventures ever undertaken by the German technical aid agency.

Wasserfindung mit der Wünschelrute
Water detection with the rod
Handpumpe fertig
A pump has been installed

In the GTZ abstract number 183 from 1986 (page 46) it is stated that: The water devining method was the most effective method of locating well sites. The success of the project in regards to quality and quantitiy of the water in the wells was, compared to other projects, extremely high. It would hardsly have been possible to construct more than 600 deep wells in just 3 years in the fractured base rock formation if only geological and geo-electric water finding methods had been relied on.

After the project in Sri Lanka was concluded, Hans Schröter was sent into other water development projects expecially the difficult cases as a kind of troubleshooter, in which conventional techniques had reached their limits. The objective - water detection under difficult conditions, in cristalline rock, in karst water channels or red sandstone in arid zones (e.g. Verde Island / Philippines, Congo, Niger, Yemen, Capverde Islands, Sinai, Kenya und Namibia) - the combined use of hydrogeology and radiesthesia has successfully been established.

In 1991, the GTZ released a study called „Unconventional water detection - field studies of the dowsing method“ which is a documentation of his successful story.

Succes story

A success rate of 96% for a total of 691 wells, and generally under difficult geological conditions, gives some weight, even if neither the aim of the program nor its monitoring can be termed purely scientific“, comments geoscientist Prof. Hans Berckhemer from the Frankfurt University on the dowsing success in Sri Lanka. "Conventional prospection in the very same area has delivered success rates of around 30%, that is, only every third drilling was successful“.

In the same year, the German press (Frankfurter Rundschau) perfectly summarized Hans Schröters successful water detection in an article „The aid worker with the rod“

Article in German