Theewaterskloof dam
Theewaterskloof Dam near Villiersdorp on the Sonderend River is one of the biggest dams in South Africa. It was built in 1978 to supplement the growing demand for water in Cape Town. The brown colour of the water of many rivers in the Cape accounts for the name Theewaterskloof (Tea water ravine) The Khoi Khoi name Kamma kan Kanna is said to refer to the myriad of small streams flowing in the high mountains above Franschhoek.
It is an earth-fill type dam that has a capacity of 480,406 megalitres of water, and when it is full the reservoir covers an area of 5,059 hectares about 41% of the water storage is available for the population of Cape Town and the Winelands, for municipal, industrial and irrigation purposes. The Hottentots Holland mountain range is the main catchment area, 1mm of rain per square meter equates to 500 000 000 litres falling in this area. Therefore it requires a full metre of rainfall with 100% runoff to fill the dam from totally empty. A 117 km tunnel from the dam carries water across the Franschhoek Mountains to augment the flow of the Berg River. Another tunnel 20 km long takes water from the Berg River across the Great Drakenstein to the Eerste River and it works in reverse if the Eerste River is in flood. Since the building of the Theewaterskloof Dam in the 1970s, Villiersdorp has developed a microclimate very suitable for viticulture and deciduous fruit farming.
Sports club
The expanse of water is 17 km long and 7 km wide. It is popular for water sports such as yachting, power boating, water skiing, board sailing, and fishing. The Theewaterskloof sports club is on Old Caledon Road, Villiersdorp enquire about camping, watersports, and accommodation
Office: 028 840 1334 Duty Manager: 060 884 6497.
Theewater Sailing Academy Learn the basics sailing a dinghy under instruction 072 219-5951
Music Festival
The Theewaterskloof Dam is also the home of the annual Synergy Live Music Festival, one of the biggest outdoor music festivals in South Africa, which typically takes place on the last weekend of November or the first weekend of December.
