The forgotten work of the Intercolonial Irrigation Commission

Abstract

Water History Several interesting articles on the history of the Pretoria Fountains have recently appeared in the Water Wheel. Few people, however, know about an incident during which the future of these fountains were threatened and saved, in the nick of time, by a special commission whose findings led to significant changes in the approach to dolomitic groundwater and Water Law that ended up being applied for almost a century and which had a significant repercussions on mining in the Far West Rand. On 16 January 1905 an Inter-Colonial Irrigation Commission was established by the then Governor of the Transvaal. The commission was led by a Judge of the Transvaal Supreme Court, JW Wessels. Other members of the Commission were WL Strange, the Director of Irrigation for the Transvaal, J Rissik, the former Surveyor-General to the South African Republic, JA Neser, an Attorney-at-law and the Mayor of Klerksdorp, Capt.

Authors

Categories