New hope for troubled waters - The Hartbeespoort Dam test case

Abstract

EUTROPHICATION MANAGEMENT I n 2003, Hartbeespoort Dam near Brits suffered some of the worst algae blooms ever experienced in South Africa. While the cause - high phosphate levels - is not unique to the dam, nowhere else in the country, and possibly the world, do these “hyperscums” grow so rapidly or in such vast quantities. In June last year, Water Wheel spoke to Petrus Venter, Deputy Regional Director of Water Resource Management in the North West province, who explained that upstream treatment actions were unable to reverse the conditions at the dam, largely because they failed to tackle the real root of the problem. “The most successful management approach so far has been the physical removal of the cyanobacterial scum that forms when the bluegreen algae rises to the surface and starts rotting,” he says. “During the emergency clean-up last April, it took ten days to pump out the bulk of the three hectares of scum that had accumulated along the dam wall.

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