Good morning guys

I am especially interested in the older guys' memories here.

Just some background (copied off tourism sites) first:

In 1880 Gawie Retief completed an ambitious project on behalf of the Bovlei's farming community: to channel water from the Witterivier across the watershed into the Kromrivier to provide irrigation water to his fellow Bovlei farmers. Today this canal in Bainskloof irrigates more than 600 ha of fertile vineyards and vine nurseries. This "river piracy" allows the Witterivier to flow into both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

The idea of building a canal to augment the Kromrivier's water was first proposed in 1815 by Daniel Johannes Rossouw, also a farmer in the Bovlei. He wanted the government to help him fund the project and submitted his proposal to the authorities, who in turn sent out Captain D'Escury to inspect the site. To D'Escury's surprise, the Bovlei farmers showed no interest in building a furrow that would - they feared - giver Rossouw control over their water source. Needless to say, the canal was never built.

A few years later, while working on the Bainskloof Pass, Andrew Geddes Bain heard of the idea, and offered to build the furrow at a cost of 400 pounds. The farmers in turn dismissed the offer as being too expensive. Instead, the appointed a fellow Bovlei farmer, Gawie Retief of the farm Kanetfontein, to build the canal for them. Retief completed the furrow in 1860 and almost three times Bain's quote. Nevertheless, the results were so pleasing, that Retief received a bonus for his efforts.

One cannot underestimate the amount of work that went into building the furrow. Dynamite had not been invented yet. Rocks were shattered with gunpowder, or the more cost effective method of building large fires on top of the rock, and then dousing the heated stone with cold water.

It was also reported in a previous issue of the Farmer’s Weekly, that the water is in fact now used to irrigate approximately 670 ha of vineyards and vine nurseries.

Further research on the internet (DWAF documents) indicated that the farmers are only entitled to extract a maximum of 5 million m³/a (not sure of the symbols used but suppose it indicates Five Million Cubic Metres per Annum) by way of Gawie se Water. This would apparently be in terms of their registered water consumption rights but I have been unable to verify the source of this entitlement.


No for my question:

I have struggling to resolve the Witte problem for almost eighteen months now and it is virtually impossible to make any progress. Basically, the sluice gate at Gawie se water has been forced shut. In practise it means that the entire summer flow of the river is being diverted down the side of the mountain. The Witte below this point stagnates and as such pretty much all indigenous and alien fish have dissapeared.

My knowledge of the new water act is extremely limited but as far as I understand, water users were entitled to register their existing (as exercised) water rights usage as at 1996.

It is my understanding that, until only a few years ago, the sluice gate was manually opened and closed on a daily basis by the water users. This is no longer the case and what I need to find out is, in terms of what the sluice was manually opened and closed? There should be some form of an agreement or court order. DWAF can not find such a document.

Is there anybody on here who can give me some info?

Thanks guys
MC