In yesterday's post I wrote about the Bulk River and Sand River that flows into the Elands River west of Port Elizabeth. The Sand River Dam is fairly close to the Elands River Road while the Bulk River Dam can just be glimpsed from the road. In the picture is the Bulk River with the dam barely visible higher up the valley.
Port Elizabeth's earliest water supply came from the Shark River at Happy Valley and the Donkin Stream next to the Donkin Reserve. As the city started to grow in its early days of development the demand for water far exceeded this meager supply. After a competition held by the Port Elizabeth city council in 1862 to find proposals to supply the city with water, a weir and small dam was built in the Van Stadens River. This was later followed by…
While the rest of the country has had wide spread flooding over the last month or so, the parts of the Eastern Cape and Southern Cape, including Port Elizabeth and environs, are in the mids of the worst drought in 150 years. In some areas the situation has entered crisis proportions. Some towns has just about run out of water. Farmers are really struggling and the summer fruit in the Langkloof will be way under par this year. Here in…
Yesterday we started on a journey to the nearby farming village of Patensie, via the Winterhoek mountains. Along the way (at S33 43 36, E 25 05 59, if you want to look it up on GoogleEarth) we came across one of the dams that supply PE with water. The Bridge we stood on to take this photo is called the William Snyman Bridge, Sand River. I have done a more detailed post about the first part of the journey…