Mountain river

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Berg River
Great Berg River, Groot Bergrivier
Rivers in South Africa

Rivers in South Africa

Data
location South Africa ( Western Cape Province )
source at Franschhoek
muzzle at Velddrif in the Atlantic Coordinates: 32 ° 46 ′ 15 ″  S , 18 ° 8 ′ 41 ″  E 32 ° 46 ′ 15 ″  S , 18 ° 8 ′ 41 ″  E

Reservoirs flowed through Berg River Dam , Misunderstanding Weir
The Berg River Dam with drain

The Berg River Dam with drain

The Berg River ( Afrikaans Groot Bergrivier , English Great Berg River ) is a South African body of water in the Western Cape Province with a length of about 285 kilometers. The headwaters are in the mountains near Franschhoek . The mouth of the Berg River is near the small town of Velddrif in St. Helena Bay on the South African Atlantic coast .

course

The headwaters of the Berg River are around 1500 m above sea level in the high-rainfall summit regions of the Franschhoek and Drakenstein Mountains; west and south of Franschhoek, known for its viticulture . At the foot of this mountain region, the watercourses of its source region are dammed by the Berg River Dam . A few kilometers downstream, the Wemmershoekrivier flows into the Berg River , which is also dammed in its upper reaches by means of the Wemmershoek Dam (completed in 1957).

The Berg River then flows through the cities of Paarl and Wellington and their intensively used agricultural regions, and further downstream on its right flank at the towns of Gouda and Saron it absorbs water from the Little Berg River including the Voelvlei Dam . The Little Berg River comes from the Tulbagh Basin and, as a lateral tributary, brings abundant surface water from one of the regions in the Cape with the highest rainfall in winter.

The course of the Berg River extends strongly meandering in a north-northwest direction. In this section is the Misverstand Dam ( Misverstand Weir ). The river then swings west at De Hoek and Piketberg . In this bend, the Berg River west of Piketberg takes on the right tributary Platkloofrivier from the direction of Goedverwacht , which is dammed shortly before its confluence with the Platkloofrivier Dam . A similar situation exists with the Boesmansrivier , which flows a few kilometers down the valley from the right , whose water is held back by two dams.

In the lower reaches of the Berg River and not far from its estuary, the Soutrivier comes up on the left . Between its confluence with the Berg River and the Atlantic there are larger retention areas in the area of ​​the strongly meandering river bed .

During the summer dry season and due to the tidal fluctuations of the Atlantic, salty seawater penetrates about 24 kilometers upstream into the lower reaches. This impairs water abstraction for agricultural and urban use.

Water management infrastructure

The Wemmershoek Dam , built by a British company between 1952 and 1957, stores water from the most water-rich tributary in the upper reaches of the Berg River . Its construction was proposed as early as 1906. Its purpose is to protect the landscape down the valley from flooding and, at the time of construction, was a considerable increase in the water supply of Cape Town including some neighboring towns. At that time this consisted essentially only of the dams in the area of Table Mountain and the Steenbras Dam . By means of a pipe with a diameter of 1.5 meters, water flowed over a distance of 51 kilometers into an underground reservoir on the Tygerberg north of the center of Cape Town. From here there were distribution lines to the Cape Town region as well as to Durbanville , Paarl and Wellington.

Not far from the Bergrivier railway station , on the lower reaches of the river, a pumping station was built, from which 4.5 million cubic meters of water are piped daily to storage tanks 19 kilometers away. This facility is part of the Saldanha Bay Water Supply Scheme ( Afrikaans : West Boland Waterskema , Saldanhabaai-Watervoorsieningskema ), which was started in the 1930s . In this way, settlements in an area with very little rainfall received an improved supply of drinking and industrial water. The facilities at Langebaan Road Airport ( SAAF ) and Langebaan-Marinehafen benefited from the connection, as did the settlements of Saldanha , Vredenburg and Paternoster , Velddrif and Laaiplek and Stompneusbaai.

Dams

  • Berg River Dam (planning started in 1989, filled up by 2008 and officially commissioned in 2009)
  • Misunderstanding Weir

In the catchment area, on tributaries are:

  • Wemmershoek Dam (built 1952–1957)
  • Voëlvlei Dam .

Tributaries

Nine larger and seven smaller tributaries flow into its catchment area of ​​around 8,980 square kilometers. The tributaries Franschhoek River, Wemmers River, Dwars River, Little Berg River, Kuilders River and Twenty Four River are considered to be continuously water-bearing.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DEADP: Western Cape IWRM Action Plan: Status Quo Report Final Draft. ( fewlbnexus.uct.ac.za PDF, p. 5, English).
  2. ↑ Traugott Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1966, pp. 84-87.
  3. ↑ Traugott Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape. 1966, p. 85.
  4. ↑ Traugott Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape. 1966, p. 86.
  5. ↑ Traugott Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape. 1966, pp. 86-87.
  6. ↑ Traugott Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape. 1966, pp. 85-86.
  7. ^ Stellenbosch University , Department of Geography & Environmental Studies: Berg River Dam. ( www0.sun.ac.za English).
  8. ^ Water Research Commission: Berg River Dam: Designed with Rivers in Mind. In: The Water Wheel. July-August 2008, ( wrc.org.za PDF, English).
  9. ^ Republic of South Africa, Government Communication and Information System: R1.5bil Berg River Dam to supply 20% of Cape Town's water. ( sanews.gov.za English).
  10. ↑ DEADP: Western Cape IWRM Action Plan: Status Quo Report Final Draft ( fewlbnexus.uct.ac.za PDF, p. 21, English).
  11. ↑ Traugott Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape. 1966, pp. 86-87.
  12. ^ Republic of South Africa, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry: State of Rivers Project. Berg River System - 2004 ( dwa.gov.za PDF, p. 12, English).
  13. ↑ DEADP: Western Cape IWRM Action Plan: Status Quo Report Final Draft. ( fewlbnexus.uct.ac.za PDF, p. 20, English).

Web links

Commons : Berg River (Western Cape)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files