{"id":830238,"date":"2025-07-03T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=830238"},"modified":"2025-07-03T13:39:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:39:28","slug":"south-africa-built-1583-more-dam-capacity-in-the-30-years-before-1994-than-after-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/830238\/south-africa-built-1583-more-dam-capacity-in-the-30-years-before-1994-than-after-it\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa built 1,583% more dam capacity in the 30 years before 1994 than after it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Between 1964 and 1994, the government constructed 14 new dams that can store over 200 million cubic meters of water. Between 1994 and 2024, it only built two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is facing severe water problems due to a lack of infrastructure maintenance and a failure to invest in additional infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johannesburg, for example, faces a severe water crisis due to ageing infrastructure, insufficient investment in maintenance and upgrades, and high levels of water losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many smaller towns across South Africa, such as Lichtenburg and Coligny, experience water outages that can last for days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mismanagement and corruption have caused significant damage to South Africa\u2019s water system, which affects most citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is a water-scarce country, which means that the water lost due to leaks and illegal connections is a significant concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ageing and poorly maintained infrastructure contribute to water losses, with some reports indicating that over 40% of water is lost before reaching consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another problem is that South Africa\u2019s water infrastructure and resources have not kept pace with the country\u2019s population growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many experts have warned that the country\u2019s dam capacity has not kept pace with the rapid population growth over the last 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent report revealed that the government has only added 1.7 million megalitres of dam capacity over the past 29 years, compared to 22 million megalitres from 1964 to 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comparison, South Africa\u2019s population grew from 44 million in 1994 to 65 million in 2025. The water infrastructure cannot cope with this growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Former Water and Sanitation Minister, Senzo Mchunu, called for urgent partnership to build new infrastructure and upgrade existing dams to meet growing water demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2024, Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina unveiled plans to address water scarcity through multiple dam construction projects across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there has never been a shortage of plans in South Africa. Executing these plans is where the problem lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African dams between 1964 and 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s official data about its dams paints a grim picture. The country has significantly slowed its investment in large dams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), a large dam is defined as one with a capacity exceeding 3 million cubic meters, equivalent to 3 billion litres of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICOLD also defines large dams as those with a dam wall that is higher than 15 metres, which is an indication of capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa currently has 282 dams that satisfy these requirements. Of these large dams, 253 were built before 1994, and 29 were built in or after 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more concerning is the number of mega dams which were built in South Africa over the last three centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this analysis, mega dams are defined as those with a capacity of more than 200 million cubic metres of water and a wall height of at least 30 metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This translates to a dam with a total capacity of 200 billion litres of water, equivalent to the capacity of 80,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has 20 dams that meet this criterion. Fourteen of these dams were built before 1994, with only two constructed after 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1964 and 1994, South Africa increased its water supply capacity by 30 billion cubic metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1994 and 2024, South Africa added only 1.9 billion cubic metres of water capacity to its supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table and charts below show how South Africa\u2019s investment in new dams slowed after 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mega dam construction in South Africa from 1964 to 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Mega dams in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
DAM<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>YEAR<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>HEIGHT (M)  <\/strong><\/strong><\/td>CAPACITY IN 10\u00b3 M\u00b3<\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
BLOEMHOF<\/td>1970<\/td>33<\/td>1,218,078<\/td><\/tr>
GARIEP<\/td>1971<\/td>88<\/td>5,342,932<\/td><\/tr>
PONGOLAPOORT<\/td>1973<\/td>89<\/td>2,267,068<\/td><\/tr>
SPIOENKOP<\/td>1973<\/td>53<\/td>272,265<\/td><\/tr>
ALBERT FALLS<\/td>1976<\/td>33<\/td>289,166<\/td><\/tr>
MTATA<\/td>1977<\/td>38<\/td>253,674<\/td><\/tr>
VANDERKLOOF<\/td>1977<\/td>108<\/td>3,187,073<\/td><\/tr>
THEEWATERSKLOOF<\/td>1978<\/td>38<\/td>480,406<\/td><\/tr>
STERKFONTEIN<\/td>1980<\/td>93<\/td>2,616,950<\/td><\/tr>
GROOTDRAAI<\/td>1981<\/td>42<\/td>356,023<\/td><\/tr>
GOEDERTROUW<\/td>1982<\/td>88<\/td>301,278<\/td><\/tr>
WOODSTOCK<\/td>1983<\/td>49<\/td>373,260<\/td><\/tr>
RHENOSTERKOP<\/td>1984<\/td>36<\/td>205,800<\/td><\/tr>
INANDA<\/td>1989<\/td>65<\/td>251,641<\/td><\/tr>
DRIEKOPPIES<\/td>1998<\/td>50<\/td>251,000<\/td><\/tr>
DE HOOP DAM<\/td>2015<\/td>74<\/td>351,000<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Dam capacity added in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between 1964 and 1994, the government constructed 14 new dams that can store over 200 million cubic meters of water. Between 1994 and 2024, it only built two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":830245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[23017,20218,19613,23018],"class_list":["post-830238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-international-commission-on-large-dams-icold","tag-pemmy-majodina","tag-senzo-mchunu","tag-water-and-sanitation-minister"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830238"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830328,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830238\/revisions\/830328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}