| BEERVLEI DAM: Eastern Cape |
| W Cape | E Cape | N Cape | Gauteng | KZN | Mpumalanga | Free State | Northwest | Limpopo |
|
Catchment: |
Water coarse (River): |
Groot Rivier/Kouga/Gamtoos River |
Capacity: |
86 mil.cub.m | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Type of wall: |
Date constructed: |
1953 |
Owner: |
||||||||||||||||||||
Map |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
The reservoir of the Beervlei Dam needs
to be empty at the start of the flood in order to store as much of the
flood water as possible. The Karoo sediments in the area contain a lot
of salts and it has been found that lengthy storage of water results
in high water salinity. The mode of operation is that any floodwater
is used as quickly as possible by the downstream irrigators and the
reservoir is thus kept empty for flood absorption purposes. A similar
flood attenuation dam has been built upstream of the town of Ladysmith
(KwaZulu-Natal) and this dam has a large uncontrolled outlet in its
base to ensure emptying after a flood. You will see from this
explanation that the Beervlei Dam has not been decommissioned as
mentioned by Mr Marachel, but is alive and well in its empty state! I
have received many queries from members of the public as to why the
Beervlei Dam is always empty. (Paul Roberts (Pr Eng), Secretary:
SANCOLD) http://www.wrc.org.za/Knowledge%20Hub%20Documents/Water%20Wheel/Magazine/WaterWheel_2011_03_May.pdf |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Photos: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
| References: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Useful links: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (Dam information and levels) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
