Gariep Dam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gariep Dam was originally called the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam after the first Prime Minister of the Republic of South Africa Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd on its commission in 1971. However after the end of apartheid the name was considered unsuitable, and the name was officially changed to Gariep Dam on 4 October 1996. Gariep is Sotho for "Great water".

The dam is located on the Orange River between the Eastern Cape to the south and the Free State to the north and about 30 km north east of Colesburg. It is situated in a gorge at the entrance to the Ruigte Valley some 5 km east of Norvalspont. The dam itself is a concrete gravity-arch hybrid dam. This design was chosen as the gorge is too wide for a complete arch so flanking walls form gravity abutments to the central arch. It is 88 m high and has a crest length of 914 m and contains approximately 1.73 million m³ of concrete.

The Gariep Dam is the largest storage reservoir in South Africa (in South African English 'dam' refers both to the structure and the lake it impounds) with a total storage of approximately 5 500 million m³ and a surface area of more than 370 km³ when full. It has four 90 MW generators, giving a maximum output of 360 MW of electricity at a water flow rate of 800 m³/s.