I read the same article in the daily wail and was considering opening a thread on divining until I saw this one.
If you put a hole in the ground, it is hard not to encounter water below the water table, unless the material has zero permeability, and that is highly unlikely. Having drilled a couple of deep water wells in desert areas, water had been found but could produce less than one cubic meter/hour. No use to man or beast. By contrast I once worked a pumping test in the uk on a contaminated well. This produced a million gallons a day for a month. Drawdown was about 5 feet and recovery almost instantaneous. Two extremes- the difference being underground permeability enabling very low and very high flow rates.
I am a geologist and have a completely open mind on dowsing. I have not tried it but I am happy to accept that for some people it works. I suspect there is some effect affected by underground running water that sensitive people can detect. Science has not yet discovered, explained and quantified everything, there are still baffling phenomena.