Dam history lessons

Empowerment does not require redistribution

In November 1912, AD Lewis, the circle engineer for the lower Orange River, undertook a monumental journey. He travelled from Kenhardt to Pella, along the banks of the Orange River, by horse-drawn cart. It was one of the hottest years on record, and by the time he reached the mission station at Pella, two of his horses had died. That did not deter him, however. He continued onwards, now on foot for much of the journey, although at one stage he did make use of an ox, quipping that ‘the only body part tiring being the arm from slogging’. After 16 days of walking, carrying all his own equipment, he reached the river’s mouth.

Lewis’s journey would be forgotten if not for the plans he fashioned along the route. On his return, he wrote a detailed report on his observations. And his plans were clear: the Orange river offered incredible irrigation opportunities.

‘There can hardly be a true South African,’ he wrote, ‘and certainly no irrigation engineer, with a soul so dead that he can contemplate our greatest river tearing down to the ocean through a vast area of country which is thirsty for water, without feeling that some great effort should be made to design and carry out irrigation works for the Orange River which would rival those famous works of other great rivers in the world.’

These were not only daydreams. The following year, Lewis travelled to America to inspect 17 different irrigation schemes, publishing his findings in 1915. Six years later, in 1921, Lewis became director of Irrigation of the Union of South Africa. And for the next twenty years, he would begin implementing the plans he concocted during his journey along the Orange.

But first, he needed information. In 1933, Lewis gathered support to create a new map of South Africa, which was urgently needed. The government provided funds for the project in 1934, and it continued until 1937 using existing maps and triangulation. These maps were very detailed and useful to the Irrigation Department, allowing them to accurately measure the most ideal location for dams and irrigation networks.

Although Lewis promoted the establishment of irrigation farming settlements around the Orange River, his successors had even bigger plans. One of these was to build several dams along the Orange River and tunnel the water south, allowing for more intensive Karoo farming. And, indeed, by the 1960s, with a growing economy and a government keen on empowering Afrikaners, large investments were made in dam construction. Lewis would live long enough to see the start of construction of the Gariep dam in 1965, opening in 1971. Another Orange river dam, the Vanderkloof dam, the second-largest dam in South Africa, opened in 1977.

But the most impressive investment, and one that would empower entire farming communities and regions, would be the Orange-Fish tunnel, the fifth longest tunnel in the world, from the Gariep dam to the Fish River valley with the outlet at Teebus, southwest of Steynsburg. It has turned the valleys around Cradock into valuable irrigated land, producing pecans, walnuts, maize and lucerne.

It was an infrastructure project that would never be profitably undertaken by the private sector – a public good in the classic sense – funded by the government to the benefit of an entire province; the tunnel today supplies water to the cities of Makhanda and Gqerberha too. 

The net effect, long-term, of a successful empowerment project, is arguably that everyone should ultimately benefit. Consider that all the people of Gqeberha now benefit from a sustainable water source.

So what would a successful empowerment scheme look like today?

There is no doubt that in the immediate post-apartheid period, the South African government did an impressive job of rolling out services to previously unconnected communities. This included services like electricity, fixed-line phone connections and housing.

Development economists have shown the remarkable reductions these services made to the poverty rate, for example. And there were also several mega-projects that not only boosted incomes but also the self-confidence of a young nation: the Gautrain, for example, has arguably created large positive externalities for residents of Gauteng, even if the project itself remains a burden on the taxpayer. The port of Ngqura, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Road project that is still ongoing could be considered further examples.

But let us imagine we are a 21^st-century AD Lewis, dreaming up new schemes for empowerment. What would the best mega-infrastructure investment be to benefit South Africans? And what are the pitfalls that prevent it?

South Africa remains a water-scarce country, and water a vital input into farming. Climate change is only likely to exacerbate these challenges.

There is no reason that another tunnel, perhaps from the Orange River south into the Klein Karoo, could turn marginal farmland into fertile plains. But irrigation schemes are probably most needed in the former homelands, the regions of South Africa where the poorest third of South Africans live. There have been several attempts, of course, to provide irrigation infrastructure to these areas. But these have often not been successful.

A 2017 study found that more than two-thirds of large-scale centre pivots were not utilised in 76 public smallholder irrigation schemes in Limpopo. The main issue was, according to the authors, the poor status of irrigation infrastructure.

‘This was not only the main reason for non-utilisation, which in half of the cases was compounded by flood damage without repair. Dilapidated infrastructure was also perceived to be the major limitation in partially and fully utilised schemes.’

Providing infrastructure is not helpful if there is no budget to maintain it.

South Africans spend too much time in commute, partly because of poor public services. This has worsened since Covid-19.

One way to empower people is to link distant places. Instead of a high-speed train that connect cities across the country – a plan that is often touted but fortunately has made little progress, partly because it would be excessively expensive – a fast, urban train would do wonders not only for workers but also for property owners far from city centres.

Extending the Gautrain, as planned, to places like Mamelodi and Boksburg would lift property prices in those areas. Or imagine a high-speed train connecting Cape Town to Worcester through the Huguenot Tunnel. Worcester property owners would gain as people move to areas where property prices are cheaper but still have quick access to urban centres.

Broadband access has become essential in the information age. Connecting rural and township communities with rapid and affordable access to the internet would empower those who stand to gain the most from the connectivity. The gap is increasingly being filled by private sector initiatives, and often it is government regulation that get in the way of private sector roll-out. Starlink cannot operate in South Africa because it does not meet the government’s BEE requirements – an attempt at empowerment that is shooting itself in the foot.

Whereas Starlink is rapidly rolling out in countries like Nigeria and Uganda, South Africans must wait for a government willing to empower without requiring redistribution.

An edited version of this article was first published on News24. Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash.