Seite - 1338 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

COMMISSION INTERNATIONALE DES GRANDS BARRAGES ------- VINGT-SIXIÈME CONGRÈS DES GRANDS BARRAGES Autriche, juillet 2018 ------- DAM SAFETY REGULATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: 32 YEARS DOWN THE LINE Louis C. HATTINGH Chief Executive Officer, HATTINGH ANDERSON ASSOCIATES CC, PRETORIA Ivor SEGERS Principal Engineer: Civil Engineering, EXXARO RESOURCES LTD, PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICA 1. INTRODUCTION South Africa is the 30th driest country in the world. This is due to low levels of rainfall (relative to the world average) and high variability (60% of river flow arises from only 20% of the land area) as well as high levels of evaporation. Of the total mean annual runoff of 49 000 million m3 per year, only 10 000 million m3 is annually available as assured yield (98% assurance) [1]. As a result, South Africa has been one of the major dam building countries in the world. It is the country with the seventh most large dams (more than15 m high) on the ICOLD register of dams [2]. It also has a significant number of small dams (less than 15 m high). Of the total available water resources 67% is currently allocated for irrigation while the rest is made up of domestic and industrial use (22%), mining (5%), afforestation (3%) and power generation (mainly thermal power) and transfers between catchment basins (3%) [1]. This paper not only summarize the history of Dam Safety implementation in South Africa from its earliest humble beginnings in the 1970s to the implementation of Dam Safety legislation in 1980s [3] and the update of the relevant regulations in 1338