Written by the Water Research Commission (WRC)
The Douglas Weir, in the Northern Cape, was recognised as a World Heritage Irrigation Structure by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).
The weir was nominated by the South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID) and the award was accepted on behalf of the committee by ICID Vice-President and SANCID Chair, Professor Sylvester Mpandeli, who led the nomination.
The award, in the form of a plaque, was handed over at ICID’s 75th International Executive Council meeting, held in Sydney, Australia, on 1-7 September.
The Douglas Weir will also be included in the ICID Register of World Heritage Structures.
This is the first time that a South African irrigation structure has received the award since its inception in 2012.
Speaking from Australia, Prof Mpandeli said: “This is really good news for South Africa as a country. The country has a rich irrigation history, and SANCID will continue to profile the country’s irrigation structures, canals and dams which are more than 100 years old to the global community.”
Originally commissioned in 1890 by the Department of Agriculture, Douglas Weir is a concrete structure built on the left bank of the Vaal River, just above its junction with the Orange River.
The original structure comprised loose stones, branches and sods feeding water into a 10 km-long canal. Destructive floods have resulted in the weir being restructured several times during the last 130 years. The last time the weir was raised was in 1977 to a wall height of 10 m and a length of 1 063 m.
Today owned by the Department of Water and Sanitation, the weir forms the central infrastructure of the Lower Orange Vaal Water User Association, supplying an area of around 8,113 hectares of irrigation.
Picture: Supplied