Loskop Dam is a combined gravity and arch type dam located on the Olifants River, near

Groblersdal Groblersdal is a farming town situated 32 km north of the 178 million m³ Loskop Dam in the Sekhukhune District of Limpopo. The town is South Africa's second largest irrigation settlement. The main crops in this man-made floodplain are co ...

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It was established in 1939 and has been renovated in 1979. The dam is situated in the Loskop Dam Nature Reserve and it serves mainly for irrigation purposes. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high (3).

History

A popular vacation spot that irrigates the majority of the

Bushveld The Bushveld (from Afrikaans: ''bosveld'', Afrikaans: ''bos'' 'bush' and ) is a Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. The ecoregion straddles the Tropic of Capricorn ...

, the Loskop Dam was first proposed in 1905 and started as a private cooperative scheme by landowners along the Olifants in 1930, but officially only endorsed by the government in 1934. In 1939, the project was completed under the auspices of the Department of Irrigation (today's

Department of Environmental Affairs The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) is one of the departments of the South African government. It is responsible for protecting, conserving and improving the South African environment and natural resources. It ...

) at a cost of R5 million, employing among others Willem J. Grobler, on whose Klipbank Farm his namesake town of

was founded in 1938 as the canal network's hub. The scheme stretches 64 km to the north of this town, including 148 km on 2 main pipes and 330 km of branch lines irrigating 19,000 ha; 250 km of drainage canals return excess water from farm to river. Most Loskop farms use sprinklers, but a growing portion use central pivot irrigation. An innovative feature of the dam is the use of "breakers," 6-m-high structures above the walls that divert floodwaters into colliding streams called "heavy rain" with less destructive potential. 650 farms covering around 25.7 ha each use the water, including a small proportion originally reserved for the elderly and disabled. The

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

climate supports the growth of many crops, but summer

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

and winter

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

are the main standbys, as well as

table grape Table grapes are grapes intended for consumption as fresh fruit, as opposed to grapes grown for wine production, Juicing, juice production, jelly and jam making, or for drying into raisins. ''Vitis vinifera'' table grapes can be in the form of e ...

s and

vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...

s on a smaller scale. On March 6, 1940, the Transvaal Provincial Council established a nature reserve in the area, a popular

angling Angling (from Old English ''angol'', meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless te ...

spot for

Mozambique tilapia The Mozambique tilapia (''Oreochromis mossambicus'') is an oreochromine cichlid fish native to southeastern Africa. Dull colored, the Mozambique tilapia often lives up to a decade in its native habitats. It is a popular fish for aquaculture. Due ...

redbreast tilapia The redbreast tilapia (''Coptodon rendalli'') is a species of fish in the family Cichlidae. It is found widely in the southern half of Africa. Its natural habitats are freshwater lakes and freshwater marshes. It is known as the redbreast kurper ...

yellowfish ''Labeobarbus'' is a mid-sized ray-finned fish genus in the family Cyprinidae. Its species are widely distributed throughout eastern Africa and especially southern Africa, but also in Lake Tana in Ethiopia. A common name, in particular for the s ...

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

, mudfish, and

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

. Boasting a modern

RV park A recreational vehicle park (RV park) or caravan park is a place where people with recreational vehicles can stay overnight, or longer, in allotted spaces known as "sites" or "campsites". They are also referred to as campgrounds, though a true ...

and extensive recreational facilities, the reserve covers 12,700 ha. Large game has been bred there since 1948 - indeed, a breeding pair of

white rhinoceros The white rhinoceros, also known as the white rhino or square-lipped rhinoceros (''Ceratotherium simum''), is the largest extant species of rhinoceros and the most Sociality, social of all rhino species, characterized by its wide mouth adapted f ...

were brought there in 1963 to bear a calf there on April 11, 1964, returning the species to the area after its extinction in the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...

in 1896. The reserve also features other types of

rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

es,

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...

giraffe The giraffe is a large Fauna of Africa, African even-toed ungulate, hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa.'' It is the Largest mammals#Even-toed Ungulates (Artiodactyla), tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on ...

blue wildebeest The blue wildebeest (''Connochaetes taurinus''), also called the common wildebeest, white-bearded gnu or brindled gnu, is a large antelope and one of the two species of wildebeest. It is placed in the genus ''Connochaetes'' and Family (biology), ...

zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. ...

, among others.

Sources

* Erasmus, B.P.J. (1995). '' Op Pad in Suid-Afrika''. * ''Wêreldspektrum'', 1982, , vol 17, p. 126

References

List of South African Dams
from the

Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (South Africa) Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

{{Authority control Dams in South Africa Olifants River (Limpopo) Dams completed in 1939

History

See also

Sources

References