Orange River Project News Today

The previously parched Cradock was given a new lease of life in 1976 when the Orange River Project began to pump irrigation water from the Gariep Dam to the Eastern Cape via the Great Fish River that flows through the town.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has imposed an 18% restriction on the Greater Bloemfontein Water Supply System following confirmation by a yearly operating analysis that restrictions are required when the system storage is below the median of the projected system storage. The water demands for the system exceed the yield of the system, with restrictions to be lifted when the system is spilling.

Opened in 1976 and built to last 300 years, the Orange-Fish Tunnel remains one of South Africa’s most outstanding engineering feats.

Here is the story of the remarkable Gariep Dam, right in the middle of the country.