Water use efficiency – Irrigators take the lead in Lower Olifants

Abstract

Irrigation Despite the challenges associated with operating an 80-year-old irrigation scheme, the Lower Olifants River Water User Association (LORWUA) is successfully supporting one of the most important agricultural areas in the country while continuously striving for water use efficiency. Lani van Vuuren reports. M odernisation of farming has taken place in the Olifants River Catchment, in the Western Cape, since the arrival of Dutch settlers in the 1600s. Farmers initially planted crops in the fine alluvial deposits on the banks of the river. The first dam (Bulshoek) and associated canals were constructed just after the First World War. This was followed by the construction, through labour-intensive methods, of the Clanwilliam Water use efficiency – Irrigators take the lead in Lower Olifants Dam and additional open canals in the 1930s (for more information on the history of the scheme, see Water Wheel, September/October, 2010).

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