Hartbeespoort Dam - An action plan

Abstract

WATER QUALITY & RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT Travel back in time to the last century: One hundred years ago, the Anglo-Boer War was drawing to its conclusion, and people’s thoughts turned back to pastoral activities associated with day-today life. In the valleys around the town of Brits, planners and agronomists cast an eye toward the rich soils of the Crocodile River Valley and began to dream of the agricultural production that such soils could generate...if only there was water! Jump forward in time to the 1920s: The Great War had drawn to its bloody conclusion, and people’s thoughts again turned to more peaceful pursuits. This time, the plans made and left dormant while the peoples of the world engaged in mortal combat are dusted off and construction of the great concrete wall at the Antelope Gorge upstream of the fertile Brits Valley on the Crocodile River was begun, culminating in the completion of the Hartbeespoort Dam in 1925. Some twenty five years later another global conflagration had ended. In South Africa urban growth centered on the Golden City of Johannesburg.

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