The Scheme
The Great Fish River Water Users' Association cover a large area, serving irrigators from the Teebus spruit, north of Cradock, all along the Brak River, Great Fish River upto Somerset East and Middleton, south of Cookhouse.
Water Supply
The irrigation scheme is mainly supplied by Orange River water diverted from the Gariep Dam on the border of the Eastern Cape and Free State. The supply is directly out of the Gariep dam via a 83km tunnel. The inlet works is located on the Eastern bank of the Gariep Dam, at Oviston, and the outlet at Teebus near Steynsburg. The tunnel, when constructed, was the second longest water supply tunnel in the world.
Water supplied through the tunnel is destined to several other irrigation schemes and metropolitan areas in the Easten Cape. The Schoenmakers irrigation area, Glen Melville supply area near Makhanda (Ghramstown), Lower Sundays River Valley irrigation areas near Kirkwood, and the Nelson Mandala Metropolitan area are all dependent on this supply.
The GFRWUA Scheme also has two separate supply dams (Kommando Drift Dam and Lake Arthur Dam) with their own catchment independent to the Orange-Fish supply scheme. These supply dams provide irrigation water to a dedicated irrigation area which is unable to benefit from the Orange-Fish supply scheme.
Distribution Areas
The GFRWUA consist of 20 sub areas, historical individual irrigation boards which amalgamated into the GFRWUA in 2000. These irrigation boards are now sub management areas of the GFRWUA scheme.
The sub management areas are:
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Teebus
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Upper Grassridge
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Brak River
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Knutsford
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Baroda
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Upper and Middel Great Fish River areas
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Marlow
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Scanlen
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Mortimer
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Tarka
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Kommando Drift
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Klipfontein
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Renfield
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Hougham Abrahamson
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Middleton
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Boschberg
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Somerset East
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Lower Great Fish River Area
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Little Fish River Upper and Lower Area
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Sheldon
