Gariep Dam

The Gariep Dam is located in South Africa, near the town of Norvalspont, bordering the Free State and Eastern Cape provinces. Its primary purpose is for irrigation, domestic and industrial use as well as for power generation.

Name

The Gariep Dam, on its commission in 1971, was originally named the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam after Hendrik Verwoerd, the Prime Minister before and after 31 May 1961, when the country changed from the Union of South Africa to the Republic of South Africa. However, after the end of apartheid, the Verwoerd name was considered unsuitable. The name was officially changed to Gariep Dam on 4 October 1996. Gariep is Khoekhoe for "river", the original name of the Orange River.^[3]

Location

The dam is on the Orange River about 48 kilometres (30 mi) north-east of Colesberg and 208 kilometres (129 mi) south of Bloemfontein. It is in a gorge at the entrance to the Ruigte Valley some 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Norvalspont. The dam crest is some 1300 m (4250 ft) above sea level.

Dimensions

The wall is 88 m high and has a crest length of 914 m and contains approximately 1.73 million m³ of concrete. The Gariep Dam is the largest storage reservoir in South Africa. In South African English, 'dam' refers both to the structure and the water volume it retains. Gariep Dam has a total storage capacity of approximately 5,340,000 megalitres (5,340 hm³) and a surface area of more than 370 square kilometres (140 sq mi) when full. The hydro-electrical power station houses four 90 MW generators.

Design type and contractors

The structure is a concrete gravity-arch hybrid dam. This design was chosen as the gorge is too wide for a complete arch so flanking walls form gravity abutments to the central arch.

It was built by Dumez, a French construction company.

Gariep Dam Bridge

Gariep Dam bridge
Coordinates	30°37′22″S 25°30′23″E / 30.6228°S 25.5064°E / -30.6228; 25.5064
Carries	14300 tons
Characteristics
Width	Doubleway
Statistics
Toll	None
Location

Rivers and spruits flowing into the dam

• Orange River^[4]
• Caledon River^[4]
• Brakspruit^[4]
• Broekspruit^[4]
• Oudagspruit^[4]
• Palmietspruit^[4]
• Slykspruit^[4]

Water consumption, outflow, derivative usages and diversions

It must be carefully managed by balancing the supply-and-demand of this water resource usage for its derivatives of electricity generation, irrigation(food) and municipal drinking water.

Department of Water - Orange River Basin - Map and flow diagrams Archived 2022-06-16 at the Wayback Machine

Orange-Fish River Project (Tunnel)

Map (Tunnel & Canals)Illustration - Further details on the Department of Water - Fish-Sundays Archived 2021-08-17 at the Wayback Machine

• Great Fish River Valley, then via Grassridge Dam, ElandsDrift Wier, Cookhouse Tunnel, De MistKraal Weir^[5] into
• Sundays River Valley (Canals and Tunnels Scheme) North-West of Port Elizabeth, then via Darlington Dam, Korhaansdrift Weir, Canal, Scheepersvlakte Balancing Dam,^[6] Bulk water Pipeline^[7] to
• Port Elizabeth, Nooitgedracht Water Treatment Works,^[8] since 1992 with water from the Sundays River Valley^[9] See External links for more video documentaries on construction and drone footage for canal system:

Eskom

Gariep Hydro-Electric power plants, which is remotely controlled from Gauteng
Further Facts and Details

Vanderkloof Dam

Gariep Town

Orange-Fish River Project

At Oviston, on the south bank of the reservoir, is the inlet of the Orange-Fish River Tunnel, allowing water to be diverted to the Great Fish River and most of the Eastern Cape's western parts.

There is trade off in the water usage for electricity and inter-basin transfer for water in other areas like Port Elizabeth
Orange-Fish River Tunnel Basin Transfer Schema construction 1972 (Port Elizabeth) on YouTube

Gallery

• 
  Gariep Dam overflowing in January 2011
• 
  Sunset at Oviston Nature Reserve on the dam's southern shores
• 
  Road sign heading for the dam wall
• 
  View over the lake
• 
  Forever Holiday Resort at Gariep Dam

See also

1. ^ "State of Dams in Provinces as on 20080901". Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. Archived from the original on 2008-04-21. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
2. ^ Eskom website
3. ^ "Dictionary of Southern African Place Names (Public Domain)". Human Science Research Council. p. 171.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Dept of Water Affairs website
5. ^ https://www.gfrwua.com/orange-river-project Archived 2020-10-02 at the Wayback Machine | Great Fish River Water Users Association since 1920
6. ^ https://www.gfrwua.com/orange-river-project Archived 2020-10-02 at the Wayback Machine Great Fish River Water Users Association since 1920
7. ^ http://www.dwa.gov.za/orange/Mid_Orange/fish-sun.htm Archived 2021-08-17 at the Wayback Machine Department of Water - Fish-Sundays
8. ^ Nooitgedracht Water Treatment Works - See External Links Documentary
9. ^ "Map Illustration - Further details". Department of Water - Fish-Sundays. Archived from the original on 2021-08-17. Retrieved 2020-09-22.

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