Loskop Dam is a combined gravity and arch type dam located on the Olifants River, near Groblersdal, Mpumalanga, South Africa. 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 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) at a cost of R5 million, employing among others Willem J. Grobler, on whose Klipbank Farm his namesake town of Groblersdal was founded in 1938 as the canal network's hub.[1]: 24
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.
