Water Wheel Sept/Oct 2020: Water History

Abstract

South Africa’s first state dam is a memory of greener times On local farmer, Vasie de Kock’s property, tracks of tractors and harvesters are still implanted in the earth. Like his father and grandfather that farmed here before him, de Kock also planted crops like Lucerne. He remembers a time when boat rides were a fun activity. “Eventually you got tired of all the water,” he says of the view as they went. The source of these memories is the Vanwyksvlei Dam, located just outside the town that it was named after. Completed in 1884, it was South Africa’s first state dam and was built on the dream of sustainable irrigated farming operations. Now, the near-defunct infrastructure stands as testimony of the complexities involved when man tries to tame nature, and the ripple effect when water is harnessed, and disappears. The history of the dam Economy is synonymous with water at Vanwyksvlei, wrote JCS van der Merwe in his 1979 regional historic sketch of the region.

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