2l8 DEVELOPMENT OF THE COASTAL BELT OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



to the Perie catchment area, for the reason that it is the only one 

 that he has actual figures to go on. 



Ihe chief cost in utilising this power would be the building 

 of a storage dam to equalise the flow throughout the year. A 

 reservoir of 2,000 million gallons' capacity would be sufficient 

 There is no very favourable site for such a reservoir, but a dam 

 could be built to store this water about two miles below the 

 present Perie dam. If constructed on the same plan as the 

 Perie dam, it would cost anything from £80,000 to iioo,ooo; but 

 if built on the new method (rock fill dam, with a reinforced 

 concrete face), lately introduced into this country by the Director 

 of Irrigation, it would probably only cost half the money. (These 

 efforts of the Director of Irrigation to cheapen dam construction 

 are likely to have a far-reaching beneficial effect in utilising our 

 waste water, not only for irrigation purposes, but still more for 

 power purposes.) Nevertheless, supposing it cost the higher 

 figure of £100,000, it would still be a paying proposition, as it 

 would produce an annual value of nearly £30,000 for power 

 alone. But the figures quoted for the Buffalo are for the 

 central catchment area only, above the Perie dam, and do not 

 include four tributaries, all of which join the Buffalo above 

 Kingwilliamstown. Of these tributaries, two are on the west, 

 namely, the Ungquakwebe and Hatchery, and two on the east^ 

 namely, the Cwencwe and the Izeleni. The total catchment area 

 of these rivers above the 1,800 feet level is 29 square miles, so 

 that if the whole of the water we're stored from this, area, 

 allowing the same ratio of run-off, it would give an average daily 

 flow of 27 million gallons from above the t,8oo feet level down 

 past Kingwilliamstown to the sea. A factory could be placed 

 every two miles, using 180 BHP, and the annual value of this 

 j)ower would be £55,000, which at present flows past King- 

 williamstown to the sea without producing a penny. 



While the water power of the Buft'alo and similar rivers in 

 the eastern part of the country would not lend itself to great 

 power schemes, but rather to small centres of power right down 

 the river, the conditions in the Western Province are usually quite 

 different, and lend themselves much more readily to large power 

 development, as the mountains are more or less flat-topped, like 

 Table Mountain, with precipitous sides, dropping more or less 

 vertically 2,000 or 3,000 feet. When in the employ of the Cape- 

 town Council, under the Hydraulic Engineer (Mr. Wynne 

 Roberts), the author made a careful investigation of one of 

 these centres, with a view of supplying power, should the Berg 

 River water scheme have gone through. The area was the tops 

 of the mountain on the west side of the Berg River at the back 

 of the well-known waterfall, which is such a conspicuous feature 

 in the landscape after heavy rains, looking from Paarl towards 

 French Hoek. It includes the peaks known as Africs Kop, 

 Groot Drakenstein Peak, and Spitz Kop. The area is about 

 six square miles, with a minimum elevation of about 2,700 feet 



