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Welbedacht Dam

The 928th tallest dam in the world

m

Welbedacht Dam is a concrete-gravity type dam situated in South Africa, and was established in 1973. Bloemfontein is the sixth-largest city in South Africa, with a population of around 300 000. It is situated in the Modder River catchment, which has insufficient water resources to meet the growing water requirements. The water supply to Bloemfontein is, therefore, augmented from the adjacent Caledon River by means of the Caledon - Modder River Government Water Scheme (CMRGWS). Bloemfontein originally planned to receive Orange River water from Vanderkloof Dam, but the outlet works for the transfer scheme still exist at the dam wall. For various reasons, however, constructing a smaller scheme on the Caledon River was implemented before the completion of the Vanderkloof Dam. The Welbedacht Dam on the Caledon River was constructed as the main storage element of the CMRGWS and water is abstracted from this dam for transfer to Bloemfontein and various smaller users along the way. The Welbedacht Dam is a concrete barrage-type dam on the Caledon River, which was designed and constructed by the Department of Water Affairs. The dam has a catchment area of some 15 245 km2 with a natural mean annual runoff (MAR) of around 1210 million m3/a (1920 to 1987) and was completed in 1973. Its purpose was to supply water to the city of Bloemfontein via the 115-km-long Caledon-Bloemfontein pipeline,

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