Vaal Dam, South Africa

The biggest dam on the Vaal River is the Vaal Dam. This dam was built in 1938. While it was the biggest dam to be built in South Africa at the time, it was constructed almost entirely by hand by hundreds of workers. These workers lived and worked at the dam in special construction villages, which had everything from housing, to canteens to an entertainment complex.

The Vaal Dam has been raised twice. In the early 1950s the wall was raised by 6.1 m enabling it to store 2 188 million m3. Then it was raised again in 1985 by another 3.5 m. This increased the volume of the dam to 2 575 million m3. The dam has a surface area of 321 km2 and an average depth of 22.5 m.

According to Rand Water, the main water supplier to Gauteng, even though the Vaal Dam is only the fourth-largest dam in South Africa today, it is still the most important dam in the country because of its role as the primary supplier of water to the economic heartland of South Africa. The water from the Vaal River supplies water to all of the most important industries in South Africa situated around Pretoria and Johannesburg.

Article Courtesy Of www.wrc.org.za/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/WWJuly2014_waterkidz.pdf