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The following is a partial list of dams in South Africa.
In South African English (as well as Afrikaans), a dam refers to both the wall as well as the reservoir or lake that builds up as a consequence. [1]
The Vaal Dam in South Africa was constructed in 1938 and lies 77 km south of OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg. The lake behind the dam wall has a surface area of about 320 square kilometres (120 sq mi) and is 47 meters deep. The Vaal Dam lies on the Vaal River, which is one of South Africa's strongest-flowing rivers. Other rivers flowing into the dam are the Wilge River, Molspruit and Grootspruit. It has over 800 kilometres (500 mi) of shoreline and is South Africa's second biggest dam by area and the fourth largest by volume.
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is a masonry dam across the Krishna River at Nagarjuna Sagar which straddles the border between Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh and Nalgonda district in Telangana. The dam provides irrigation water to the districts of Krishna, Guntur, Palnadu, Prakasam and parts of West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh and also Nalgonda, Suryapet, Khammam, Bhadradri Kothagudem districts of Telangana. It is also a source of electricity generation for the national grid.
Water supply and sanitation in South Africa is characterised by both achievements and challenges. After the end of Apartheid South Africa's newly elected government struggled with the then growing service and backlogs with respect to access to water supply and sanitation developed. The government thus made a strong commitment to high service standards and to high levels of investment subsidies to achieve those standards. Since then, the country has made some progress with regard to improving access to water supply: It reached universal access to an improved water source in urban areas, and in rural areas the share of those with access increased from 66% to 79% from 1990 to 2010.
Kidston Dam also known as Copperfield Dam is a dam in Lyndhurst, Shire of Etheridge, Queensland, Australia. It is approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Hughenden and was built for the Kidston Gold Mine. The mine closed July 2001. The lake created by the dam has a capacity of 20,600 megalitres.
The Oroville–Thermalito Complex is a group of reservoirs, structures, and facilities located in and around the city of Oroville in Butte County, California. The complex serves not only as a regional water conveyance and storage system, but is the headwaters for, and therefore perhaps is the most vital part of, the California Department of Water Resources' State Water Project, as one of the largest publicly built and operated water and power development and conveyance systems.
The Steenbras Dam, now referred to as Steenbras Lower Dam, is a gravity concrete arch type dam located in the Hottentots-Holland mountains, above Gordons Bay, near Cape Town in South Africa. It is one of the six large dams that make up the Western Cape Water Supply System. It is owned by the City of Cape Town and serves principally to supply water to that city. The dam wall is 28 metres (92 ft) high and 412 metres (1,352 ft) long; it impounds a reservoir of 36,133 megalitres over a surface area of 380 hectares when full.
The Sterkfontein Dam, located just outside the town of Harrismith, in the Free State, province of South Africa, is part of the Tugela-Vaal Water Project and the Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme, and located on the Nuwejaarspruit, a tributary of the Wilge River in the upper catchment area of the Vaal River. It is the second highest dam wall in South Africa and its highest earth fill dam.
The Kilburn Dam, an earth-fill type dam and part of the Tugela-Vaal Water Project and Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme, is located 500 metres (1,600 ft) lower than the Sterkfontein Dam, on the Mnjaneni River, near Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, province of South Africa. The dam was commissioned in 1981, has a capacity of 36,700 cubic metres (1,300,000 cu ft), and a surface area of 207 hectares, the dam wall is 48 metres (157 ft) high. The main purpose of the dam assembly is to serve for the generation of hydro-electricity and its hazard potential has been ranked high (3).
Driekloof Dam is a small section of the Sterkfontein Dam, Free State, South Africa. A section of the Sterkfontein Dam reservoir is isolated after the construction of Driekloof Dam, this small reservoir has a capacity of 35.6 million cubic metres (28,900 acre⋅ft)., together with the Kilburn Dam almost 500 metres (1,600 ft) lower, Driekloof forms part of Eskom's Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme and Tugela-Vaal Water Project, and provides for up to 27.6 gigawatt-hours (99 TJ) of electricity storage in the form of 275 million cubic metres of water. The water is pumped to Driekloof during times of low national power consumption and released back into Kilburn through four 250 megawatts (340,000 hp) turbine generators in times of high electricity demand.
Oviston Nature Reserve is a protected area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The nature reserve is managed by Eastern Cape Parks. It is located on the southern shores of the Gariep Dam.
The Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS) is a complex water supply system in the Western Cape region of South Africa, comprising an inter-linked system of six main dams, pipelines, tunnels and distribution networks, and a number of minor dams, some owned and operated by the Department of Water and Sanitation and some by the City of Cape Town.
The Berg River Dam is a 68-metre (223 ft) high dam on the Berg River in South Africa. It is the centerpiece of the Berg Water Project (BWP) which is designed to capture the winter rainfall and store it for supply to Cape Town during the dry summer months. The project in turn forms an important part of the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS), an intricate system of dams and bulk water infrastructure that provides water to more than 3 million people. At the inauguration of the dam in 2009, then President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe called the project "a good example of how public infrastructure projects can be used to contribute meaningfully to poverty eradication and to foster social empowerment of the people." The Berg River Dam was the first dam in South Africa to be designed and constructed in accordance with the guidelines of the World Commission on Dams. It has been completed on time and within budget. The Berg River basin and the adjacent metropolitan area of Cape Town are of particular importance to the Western Cape region because, although the basin generates only about 3% of the country's water resources, it is home to about 8% of South Africa's population, and produces about 12% of GDP.
Darlington Dam, also referred to as Lake Mentz, is a gravity type dam situated in the Addo Elephant National Park confining the Sundays River, near Kirkwood, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Kwena Dam is a combined gravity and arch type dam located on the Crocodile River, near Lydenburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa. It was established in 1984 and it serves mainly for irrigation purposes. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high.
Spitskop Dam is an earth-fill type dam located on the Harts River in the Northern Cape Province north of the city of Kimberley in South Africa. It was established in 1975 and rebuilt in 1989 after breaching during a flood in 1988. It has a full capacity of 57.887 million cubic meters of water and serves primarily for irrigation purposes. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high (3).
Theewaterskloof Dam is an earth-fill type dam located on the Sonderend River near Villiersdorp, Western Cape, South Africa. Administratively it is located within Theewaterskloof Local Municipality. It was established in 1978 and is the largest dam in the Western Cape Water Supply System with a capacity of 480 million cubic metres, about 41% of the water storage capacity available to Cape Town, which has a population of over 4 million people. The dam mainly serves for municipal and industrial use as well as for irrigation purposes. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high (3).
Wemmershoek Dam is a rock-fill type dam located on the Wemmershoek River near Franschhoek and Paarl in South Africa. It was constructed between 1953 and 1957 on behalf of the City of Cape Town. With a reservoir capacity of 58,644 megalitres, it provides approximately 6.5% of the storage capacity of the Western Cape Water Supply System which supplies Cape Town and surrounding areas.
Steenbras Upper Dam is an earth-fill type dam located in the Hottentots Holland Mountains above Gordons Bay in the Western Cape, South Africa. It impounds the Steenbras River upstream of the older Steenbras Dam. The dam was constructed in 1977 for the City of Cape Town and serves mainly for municipal and industrial use. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high (3).
The Steenbras Power Station, also Steenbras Hydro Pump Station, is a 180 MW pumped-storage hydroelectric power station commissioned in 1979 in South Africa. The power station sits between the Steenbras Upper Dam and a small lower reservoir on the mountainside below. It acts as an energy storage system, by storing water in the upper reservoir during off-peak hours and releasing that water to generate electricity during peak hours. The City of Cape Town uses the power station for load balancing and to mitigate against loadshedding caused by the South African energy crisis. This power station is reported to be the first pumped-storage hydroelectric power station to be built on the African continent.
The Steenbras River is a small river in the Western Cape province of South Africa between the Hottentots Holland and Kogelberg mountains, draining into False Bay south of Gordon's Bay. It has been dammed in two places and provides water to the city of Cape Town. The upper dam also serves as a reservoir for the Steenbras pumped-storage hydroelectricity scheme which supplements Cape Town's electricity supply during periods of peak demand.
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