Dams_Mpumalanga

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Blyderivierspoort, Mpumalanga

There are >486 dams in Mpumalanga with a capacity >20 000m3. Most of the dams in Mpumalanga were constructed between 1977 and 1997 (20 to 40 years ago)

Blyderivierspoort Dam

This dam supplies water for irrigation, local industrial and domestic demands and supports the supply from the Phalaborwa Barrage to the urban and industrial centre at Phalaborwa.

  • Blyderivierspoort
ConstructedCapacity (mil.cub.m)Wall TypeRiver
197554.4Gravity and ArchBlyde River

Notes: The naming of the Blyde River is of Dutch origin meaning ‘happy river’. It was so called because in 1844 Voortrekker leader Hendrik Potgieter and others returned safely from Delagoa Bay where they had gone in search of a harbour for trading to the rest of their party of trekkers who had considered them dead. While still under this misapprehension they had named the river, where they had been encamped, Treurrivier, or ‘river of weeping’. Source: New Dictionary of South African Place Names by PE Raper

Blyderivierspoort Water HistoryDownload pdf here

Driekoppies Dam

ConstructedCapacity (mil.cub.m)Wall typeRiver
1998251Gravity and EarthfillLomati River

Grootdraai Dam

Grootdraai Dam is a composite structure comprising a central concrete gravity section 360m long and two earthfill flanks giving a total crest length of 2 180m and a maximum wall height of 42m above lowest foundation level. The dam was completed in 1982 and was built primarily to support the water needs of the SASOL I, II and III coal to petrol plants at Secunda, ESKOM’s, Tutuka Power Station as well as the Matla, Duvha, Kendal and Kriel power stations located on the coal fields in the adjacent Olifants River basin.

ConstructedCapacity (mil.cub.m)Wall TypeRiver
1981350Gravity and EarthfillVaal River
Grootdraai DamGet factsheet here

Heyshope Dam

ConstructedCapacity (mil.cub.m)Wall TypeRiver
1986453Zoned EarthfillAssegaai River
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