Darlington Dam

Darlington Dam (Lake Mentz) was completed during 1922 and filled for the first time during 1928 as a result of runoff from the catchment area. When Darlington Dam (Lake Mentz) was initially constructed it was the second largest dam in South Africa.

The dam wall was raised during 1935 and again raised from 1948 to 1952 to increase the capacity. Darlington Dam (Lake Mentz) is now the 21st largest dam (187 million m3) in South Africa and the largest dam in the Eastern Cape and its capacity is 1/30 th the capacity of Gariep Dam (Verwoerd Dam) being 5436 million m3.

At the time that Darlington Dam was completed in 1922 there was some 18000 morgen scheduled in the valley, which was entitled to water but unfortunately Darlington Dam did not receive sufficient water from its catchment area to irrigate the entire area and moves started amongst the farmers to curtail the demand on Darlington Dam.