Monday, August 31, 2026 Search My Trip EnglishChinese
World news · travel · culture
Taiwan The Taiwan Times
Taiwan's window to the world

Vaal Barrage

The 928th tallest dam in the world

m

The Vaal River Barrage Reservoir is a dam on the Vaal River near Vanderbijlpark, border Gauteng and Free State, South Africa. The Barrage, created by a set of gates across the Vaal River, was built by Rand Water downstream of the Vaal Dam, in 1923. The reservoir is 64 kilometres long and has a total storage capacity of 63 million litres, a surface area of 16,835 square kilometres and has an average depth of 4,5 metres. The rivers – i.e., Suikerbosrand, Klip, & Rietspruit – that feed into the Vaal River Barrage Reservoir flow from industrial and heavily populated areas such as Johannesburg, Vereeniging and Sasolburg. This reservoir was used to supply water to the Witwatersrand but no longer does so because the quality of its water is deteriorating due to pollution. This reservoir, which is managed by Rand Water, is used for many recreational activities, such as boating, skiing, fishing, and swimming, with many holiday resorts found along its banks.

Dam data from Wikidata (CC0) plus curated additions. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

More dams in South Africa

  1. Vanderkloof Dam108 m
  2. Sterkfontein Dam93 m
  3. Pongolapoort Dam89 m
  4. Gariep Dam88 m
  5. Goedertrouw Dam88 m

Other tall dams worldwide

  1. Rogun Dam · Tajikistan335 m
  2. Shuangjiangkou Dam · China312 m
  3. Norak Dam · Tajikistan300 m
  4. Grande Dixence dam · Switzerland285 m
  5. Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam · Russia245 m
  6. Oroville Dam · United States234.7 m
  7. Bhakra Dam · India225.6 m
  8. Hoover Dam · United States221 m