Hartbeespoort Dam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hartbeespoort Dam (officially the Hartbeespoort Dam Reservoir) is a dam situated in the North West Province of South Africa at the latitude 25.4 South and longitude 27.5 East. It lies in a valley to the south of the Magaliesberg mountain range and north of the Witwatersberg mountain range, about 35 kilometres west of Pretoria. The name of the dam means "pass of the hartbees" (a species of antelope) in Afrikaans. The dam was originally designed for irrigation which is currently its primary use.
The dam was completed in 1923 and subsequently became a very popular holiday and weekend resort for the inhabitants of Johannesburg and Pretoria; it is the principal water recreation area of northern Gauteng and many types of water sports are practised on the dam.
Its wall is 149,5 m long and 59,4 m high. The dam is fed by the waters of the Crocodile River and Magalies rivers and covers approximately 18.83 km², with a mean depth of 9.6 m and maximum depth of 45.1 m. It has a surface area of 20 km², and its normal range of annual water level fluctuation is 0.8 m. The mixing type of the dam is monomictic.
Hartbeespoort Dam supplies irrigation water through a 544 km long network of canals to 159.76 km² of farmland on which tobacco, wheat, lucerne, fruit and flowers are produced.
Hartbeespoort dam first overflowed the dam wall in March 1925.
The town of Hartbeespoort is situated close to the dam wall and the villages of Kosmos and Schoemansville can be found alongside its banks.
A tarmac road skirts the circumference of the dam; along its route it passes through a 56.6 m long tunnel and also crosses the dam wall.
Hartbeespoort Dam is renowned for its poor water quality. The Dam is arguably one of the world's worst examples of Eutrophication, resulting from high levels of phosphates and nitrates washing into the dam. The primary pollution sources are arguably Sewage Treatment Works located in Gauteng as well as surrounding agricultural areas. The extreme level of euthrophication is easily recognisable by the dam's green colour.
