Scheepersvlakte Dam

cheepersvlakte Dam is situated about 15 km east of Kirkwood and 5 km north of Sunland in a dry tributary of the Coerney river.

The dam was designed and built by the Department of Water Affairs. Since completion in 1990, it has been operated by the Association.

The original purpose of the dam was to act as a balancing dam for the irrigation canals. During construction a secondary purpose, the augmenting of the water supply for Port Elizabeth was identified.

Today, water from this dam supplies ± 85 Ml of water per day on average to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

Scheepersvlakte Dam has a maximum wall height of 19 m and a total capacity of 805657 m3 at a full supply level of 15,8 m.

The structure consists of a uniform soil embankment, strengthened on the upstream side with soilcrete, a mixture of soil and cement. It has a side channel (ogee) overflow (40 m long) with a concrete spillway.

The outlet structure is a trapezium shaped concrete structure through the dam wall. The concrete structure houses two identical 1 000 mm diameter steel pipelines. Each of these pipelines has two butterfly valves and a diaphragm valve at the end.

One of the butterfly valves on each pipe regulates the water supply into the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality pipeline, while the other serves as a cut-off valve for each of the diaphragm valves.