100.CBR Water – Scheme (English)

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The CBR story is based on the prospectus published in 2006 

100th Story

My thanks to my WIFE, EMILE BADENHORST, CONTRIBUTORS and VISITORS to the Montagu Stories webpage. We would not have been able to celebrate our 100th story without your support.

It was not difficult to decide which story should be posted to mark the Montagu Museums 100th Historic Story. Many individuals have contributed towards the growth and sustainability of Montagu but a group of diehards has been singled out for this story. Without their contributions one can only but wonder where Montagu would be today (2024). The story was also made possible by Charlie Joubert a Montagu resident who was able to find excellent documented electronic copies of our story in both Afrikaans and English. 


A message from: Emile Badenhorst

Regional Museum Manager

Breede Valley Region

Since the first article appeared on 26 May 2020 under Montagu Stories on the museum’s website, it is now three years and 100 stories later… what an achievement!

It is my privilege to congratulate Rudi Allmayer and his team on their exceptional achievement. This group of volunteers appeared in the town and district unnoticed and without drawing too much attention to themselves – in search of stories and photographs of the “old Montagu”.

In the process, the Montagu Museum’s archive was gradually filled with an additional treasure trove of information. History that would otherwise be lost. Boxes and books of additional and new information and photos that will be invaluable to any future researcher.

What also happened was that they took the Montagu Museum to the community of Montagu. Under the auspices of the museum, this determined team left no stone unturned – from neighborhoods, distant farms in the district to remote ravines, walls and abandoned cemeteries… to collect stories for a new and even larger digital audience.

On behalf of the Montagu Museum, I would like to thank this team of researchers as well as the Friends of the Montagu Museum for their faithful service. I don’t know of another project like this at any of the smaller museums in the Western Cape – it’s really unique.

Good luck with the work ahead…

There’s only one way to know: go see and ask…

Ton Vosloo, 1975


And so the story starts

Preface

Today (2006) we see an Irrigation scheme… a working scheme that pumps water.

We use this water to irrigate agricultural crops, provide the Municipality with raw water for refinement and in certain cases our dams are used for a variety of recreational activities. Most users have no idea of the magnitude of or the process that leads to the supply of this commodity that is so necessary for life as we know it.

It usually takes a tourist or visitor to Montagu to remind the jaded residents of the beautiful mountains and the breathtaking scenery that we are so accustomed to. In the same way, we want to use this edition to remind the reader of the origin and development of this exceptional Irrigation scheme.

We also want to introduce you to the people who had a dream and realised it. They made this scheme a reality without which the economic survival of our district would have been an illusion.

To build a scheme like this and to make it a success, against the expectations of several pessimists, required a special kind of teamwork. Although these team players where not always on the same side, the “dream” they shared brought them together and was bigger than the sum of their differences. They made it possible to realise this scheme for us and our descendants. Together with the difference that this scheme has brought to our area, this publication wants to acknowledge the roll players who propelled and completed this project.

Recognition is also given to the people who brought the scheme to where it is today. They have managed, extended and kept this scheme running over the past twenty-five years. This is an achievement on its own. The scheme has kept on supplying water constantly throughout floods and droughts.

Without dedicated and helpful irrigators this scheme would just have stayed a dream. The irrigators are conscious of the importance of this water and have supported the dream whole- heartedly. Twenty-five years later they still have the CBR scheme as a life-artery.

We also want to give thanks and acknowledge the Higher Hand that has stayed visible in this project throughout times of disasters and prosperity.

E Leicher

Chairman


Photography: Ziya Fana Images: Wicus Leeuwner, Kina Joubert, R. van Dijk

Research, text and adaptation : R. van Dijk 2007

Language editing and translation: Lize Rossouw


Introduction
How did CBR originate?
Roll players in the origin of CBR
The scheme today
The Board and Personnel
Service suppliers to the CBR
Graphics and statistics
Individual narration
The next 25 years

Introduction

The main aim of this publication is to portray the origins or the Cogmanskloof Irrigation Scheme and where we stand today. Historical en technical information has been interpreted and conveyed in a simple and understandable manner with photos and diagrams. Several roll players have shared their memories with us. These people include those who cherished the idea of a water supply for our district. They had a vision to get water from the Breede River to their farms. Throughout the years they have kept on working ceaselessly to substantiate their vision. The engineers, advisors and contractors who where part of the project, has also been approached to share their stories and memories.

We have notated these stories as they were told and have verified the facts as far as possible through minutes and other documentation as well as other people who where involved.

There are tons of anecdotes and people willing to tell their tales about the quest for water over the past decades in these two towns and their agricultural communities. Just all the different plans and attempts to provide the area with perennial water can merit a publication of its own. Unfortunately there is no way we could fit all of these people and their different plans into this book. We have only notated a couple of these ‘initiatives’ shortly. Apart from this there are many other individuals who contributed directly to the establishment of this scheme who have not been mentioned in essence we have only used the main topic and core facts.

Through this publication the current Board wishes to grant anyone that may be interested, a glimpse at the magnitude of work that pre-empted the establishment and building of the scheme. It is not meant to be a historical thesis or a technical manual, rather a short summary about the scheme.

Our heartfelt gratitude and thank you to everybody who made time to think back about thirty years and more ago. With your help we have been able to assemble a humble rendition of a great project!

In the irrigation industry water enlistment is referred to in hectares. This term refers to the quantity of water that is allocated to a certain scheme to irrigate one hectare of crops for one year. Under the scheme in the Ashton area 7 450 m³ water is equal to one hectare and in the Montagu area 7 000 m³ is seen as one hectare. This does not mean that this quantity of water is enough to irrigate one hectare of crops since differences in crops, soil and climatic conditions equates to different water needs. There are other schemes who deliver 10 000 m³ and some even 4 000 m³ per hectare.

R. van Dijk Head Executive Officer


How did CBR originate?

The foundations of the CBR were laid as far back as the early 1920’s! There were plans for a scheme supplying Ashton with water pumped from the Breed River as early as 1926. Due to several different reasons this scheme never realised and has been named the “1926 Canal scheme”. The biggest obstacle was probably the attainment of water rights from the Breed River, costs and other practical implications.

The Turbine pump scheme: Extract from a minute of the Ashton Irrigation Board“The water of Zanddrift (65 cusec), Angorra (25 cusec), private pumps (10 cusec) (in total 100 cusec) and our needed36 cusec, will be brought by canal from Goree to the experimental farm in Robertson. This 100 cusec will be transferred from Muiskraalskop in a pipeline that drops 45 veet through a turbine and will generate enough power to pump our 36 cusec high enough to irrigate 2300 morgen.”Water would have passed through a pipe that had a 45 veet (13,7 m) drop. Turbines inside this pipe would then have generated enough electricity to propel the pumps needed to pump 36 cusec of water to Ashton.  

Since the 1920’s there have been several people from Ashton who have investigated the possibility of water for Ashton. Several plans were made and options considered about how to attain water for the town and irrigation. According to the founding declaration of Ashton the now well-known ‘Langeberg’ factory was responsible to provide the town with water from the Marthinusvlei- and Wildepaadekloof streams, but the development of the town had put too much pressure on the natural resources. Langeberg acquired half a hectare land from the farm Zandvliet to attain the water rights from this property for the use of the town. During the 1950’s even these three sources together became inadequate and Langeberg did not see their way open to keep on extending for the sake of water. The management of these sources where taken over by the municipality in the early 1960’s.

The idea of a scheme was again mentioned in 1951 when two new possibilities came to light, namely the 1926 canal scheme and a turbine pumping scheme.

On 25 September 1952 the Breede River Water-Conservation Board acknowledged the right of the Ashton Irrigation Board to pump water from the river. Various meetings were held with ministers about water rights and the financing of a scheme. Engineers like Mr Van der Leij went to a lot of trouble to research different schemes, estimate the cost of water and the feasibility of the scheme.

Mr van der Leij did a great deal of consulting work for the Ashton Irrigation Board from 1949 to 1953. The payment he received for this period is minuted as being £966.  

In 1958 a full enlistment in the proposed canal scheme would have cost £20 per morgen.

On 8 March 1965 the Minister of Water Affairs constituted the Ashton Irrigation Board lawfully. The following persons served on this board:

PJ de Wet (Chairman), NDL van Niekerk, JT Rabie, JF Barnard, P Jordaan and BH Reynecke.

By the end of the sixties a Mr Jarvis had designed a scheme that made use of about 12 dams, several bore holes as well as water pumped from the river. Certain restrictions were made on water pumped from the river, such as that water may only be pumped when 1) 250 cusec spilled over the Zanddrift weir and 2) the salt content of the water was lower than 250 parts per million. In modern terms this is about 40 mS/cm. This scheme was designed to store winter run off water from the river in dams to use during the summer months on the 865 ha.

Necessity is the mother of invention When irrigation water in Ashton became inadequate during the late twenties, Piet Vermaak decided that there was water in the Cogmanskloof River that he could use.He had twelve sons and farmed on a part of the farm Zandvliet. He decided to single-handedly dig canals to bring the water from the Cogmanskloof River to his farm for irrigation. In the early 1930’s they completed the first three trenches.One of these started at the Ashton/Swellendam junction, on the road’s side of the river and followed the river right past the Police Station to the farm that belongs to Mr Paul de Wet today!The other two started at the so-called “Rooiwal” near the Ashton golf course and ran on both sides of the river. There was a weir in the river that diverted the water to the sides and into the trenches. One of the canal- trenches ran all the way to the farm of the Vermeulens. These canals were known as the Cogmanskloof Canals.When, amongst others, the Poortjieskloof dam was built in the early 1950’s, the water in the Cogmanskloof River became less and less. The over-use by the increasing number of Montagu farmers also contributed to the decline in water quality. Systematically the volume and quality of the river became to weak to sustain the existence of the canals. With the dawn of the sixties these canals were in total disuse and other water sources had to be found urgently.Where water for Ashton was received from Montagu in the past, these days water is pumped under the same river by pipeline to Montagu!  

On 10 June 1971 a delegation from the Ashton Irrigation Board was sent to the Minister to apply for final approval of the scheme. The Minister found that due to the proposed extension of the scheme to the areas of Karpad en Stockwell, the water tax of R250 per morgen (R288 per hectare) made this scheme uneconomical. He advised to abandon the scheme. After this decision the Ashton board did not disband, but proceeded to look after and promote the interests of the Ashton irrigators under the chairmanship of J.F. Barnard.

While all of this was happening in Ashton, the farmers of Montagu weren’t idle. Under conduct of Mr Johan Viljoen several possibilities to bring irrigation water to Montagu were considered. Initially the so-called ‘Skotlandskloof’ contour canal as well as Dwariga dam schemes were investigated. Due to different reasons neither of these schemes realised and early in the 1950’s a plan was considered to utilise water from the newly build goverment dam, Poortjieskloof. After completion it was found that the river supplied less water than before and was inadequate for irrigation purposes. Shortly after this a channel was built from the dam to the town. This plan brought relief but the water was still not enough for sustained feasible agriculture. About a year later the dam was elevated with 4,5 meter to increase storage capacity but the water still wasn’t constant enough. All the above- mentioned efforts until 1969 were solely to provide the Derdeheuwel and Agter Langeberg districts with water.

In August 1969 the scope was widened to include a search for water for the whole Montagu community and on 22 September 1970 the “Agter de Cogmanskloof Water Committee” was founded. At the time the idea was to replace the “Committee” with “Board” as soon as the Irrigation board and district was officially proclaimed.

Montagu worked mainly with private bodies like Mr. Jarvis and especially Spilhaus to design the so-called ‘Spilhaus’ scheme. After several visits to the Minister of Water Affairs this scheme was also officially rejected.

In the early 1970’s the Minister informed both the Montagu and Ashton groups that separate schemes for these two areas would never be approved. The only possibility that may be approved would be if the two groups could submit a plan for a joint scheme.

Since it had become clear to Mr Barnard that the Government was not inclined to approve a scheme for Ashton, he had started attending the Agter de Cogmanskloof Water Committee meetings regularly. On 10 September 1971 he proposed that the two towns officially start a project together to obtain water from the river.

At that time the Agter de Cogmanskloof Water Committee consisted of the following people: Johan  Viljoen ( Chairman ) , Ewie Basson, Kenneth Knipe, Marius Burger, Isak Nel, C Geldenhuys and Barry Olivier.

Initially both t h e Montagu and Ashton schemes would only have pumped winter tailings from the river, but on 25 February 1972 the Chairman informed the Board that the Department of Water Affairs had concluded that the original scheme should be redesigned so that the necessary water could be pumped from the Breede River over a period of twelve months. In light of that decision Mr Jarvis, who was also involved in the Ashton scheme , measured Montagu’s biggest reservoir, the Knipeshope dam, the next month.

After a very long and eventful meeting in the Ashton Community Hall attended by both the Ashton and Montagu irrigators, it was decided to take on a joint scheme. The main argument during this meeting centred on the policy of tariff differentiation between the two towns. The Montagu group was strongly against different tariffs, while the Ashton group felt that the same tariffs for both groups would be tantamount to subsidising of the Montagu ward. In the end everybody agreed to differentiate the tariffs in the same way the canal schemes work. The further you are from the source, the more expensive the water. The Irrigation district of the Cogmanskloof Irrigation board was legally proclaimed in the Government Gazette of 17 September 1976. For a time research about the design of the scheme was done with the Department of Water Affairs, but on 21 May 1979 the Department appointed the firm Stiglingh, van Rooyen and Company as co-consultants.

By November the same year the Department of Water Affairs had not made any progress with the design and tender documents and Mr Stiglingh’s company received sole mandate to design the whole scheme. The state finally approved the scheme as a trial scheme. Although the Department of Water Affairs still felt that the hight over which the CBR intended to pump the water would make the scheme uneconomical, they conceded and stated that they would approve other similar schemes in future if the irrigators could make this scheme work. At this point the cost was the biggest worry. The CBR was the biggest and most expensive scheme for agriculture in the country.


EXTRACT FROM GOVERNMENT GAZETTE
17 SEPTEMBER 1976
Proclamation 190, 1976
Whereas owners of land riparian to the Cogmanskloof River and its tributaries have, in terms of secion 71 (1) of the Water Act, 1956 (Act 54 if 1956), submitted to the Minister of Water Affairs a petition stating that in the opinion of the petitioners it is desirable that a combined
system of water works should be constructed for the purpose of irrigating such land; And whereas all provisions of the said Act relating to such petition have been complied with;
And whereas the State President may, under the provisions of section 74 (1) of the said Act, declare an area to be an irrigation district; Now, therefore, under and by virtue of the powers in me vested by section 74 (1) of the said act, I hereby declare that the area described in the Annexure hereto shall constitute an irrigation district, comprising two subdistricts, known as the Cogmanskloof Irrigation District; And under and by virtue of the powers in me vested by
section 79 (1) of the said Act, I hereby further declare that there shall be an irrigation board, to be styled the Cogmanskloof Irrigation Board, in respect of the aforementioned irrigation district. Given under my Hand and the Seal of the Republic of South Africa at Pretoria this Thirty-first day of August, One thousand Nine hundred and Seventy-six.
N. DIEDERICHS, State President
By Order of the State President-in-Council:
A.J. RAUBENHEIMDER


The release of water from the Breede River to the CBR coincided with the enlargement of the now well-known Brandvleidam and the building of a cement weir over the river at Zanddrift. This weir is essential to the CBR since it acts as embankment and creates deep enough water for the pumps that pump the water into the scheme.

The Department provided the necessary funds for the building of the scheme over three years, but Mr Stiglingh recommended that the scheme be completed in 18 months to prevent costs from escalating too much. Due to this decision severe cash flow problems were experienced which made it necessary to apply for private extern funds. The first loan for R50, 000.00 was obtained from Boland Bank and the second from Volkskas (now known as ABSA). It quickly became apparent that the commercial banks would not provide big enough amounts and Land bank was approached. They agreed to a loan of R7 million if the Minister was prepared to sign as surety. This was the first time a minister had signed for such a loan and the first time Land bank had made money available for such a purpose. Due to these circumstances the loan was highlighted in Land bank’s annual report!

Blasting outside the tunnel to remove the rock. The use of explosives near the old
historic tunnel held danger in the
form that the rock walls could crack
and result in the tunnel becoming
unsafe for traffic.
The pipeline between Montagu and
Ashton is 600 mm in diameter but
permission was only given for
excavations that would allow a 500
mm diameter pipe to be placed
under the road. The pipe was placed
in concrete boxing and placed under
one side of the road. This pipe is
one class stronger than what would
usually be required by the water pressure

Blasting on the other side of the tunnel. Initially the route that was planned for the pipe from Ashton would have followed the tarred road to the tunnel. At the end of the planning phase permission was received to bury the pipeline under the old historical road as long as the ground would be compacted to the same state it was before excavations began. This route is the easier route from a construction point of view.
After this part of the pipeline was completed a leak had to be found in this stretch of the pipe line. One day a contractor observed in passing that the rock-face outside the tunnel was wet and so the leak was found

In 1980 six contractors and their bulldozers and excavators invaded Montagu and Ashton. Due to the more than 100km of ditches that were made for the building of pipelines, dams and pump houses the district resembled a war zone. The Avalon Hotel was filled to its rafters with contractor-personnel and changed into the hottest nightspot in the area. The hotel witnessed tons of mischief, like the partying and general rumpus that emanated from the ‘Bridal suite’ where the main engineer, Mr Stiglingh, resided.

The building turned into a great project. Due to the difficult route of the pipeline there were places where dynamite had to be used to blast through rock. Special consent was needed from the roads department  to  blast  through  the  rock  of  the Cogmanskloof tunnel. This was a slow and cautious job to ensure that the roof was not damaged. The building was further delayed by unexpected rains that flooded the ravines and the already prepared concrete boxing and forced all work to stop till the rivers had run-off.

The excavations on
the historical road.
The pipe line is
already finished and
the ground has to be
r e p l a c e d a n d
compacted to the
original state of density

And then came 25 January 1981 and the great Laingsburg flood! Due to the force and magnitude of this flood the rivers were pristine afterwards and looked as if someone had swept them with a broom. They were still busy laying pipes in the Cogmanskloof and several lengths of uncovered  pipes were swept away. Afterwards the river was broader and river crossings had to be extended, but in total very little damage was done to the building of the scheme.

The 600 mm main line alongside the Montagu south road between the R62crossing and the nature garden.

Construction was finished in December 1981 and signalled a great moment in the history of this area when the first water arrived from the river  into  the Knipeshope dam in Montagu.  The so called “Black Mamba” had delivered its first water and instantly became a Golden Vein of precious lifeblood. Land that had previously been unused veld suddenly changed into orchards and vineyards. Through patience and continued determination the dream to provide water for the benefit of the communities of two towns was realised.

An excavator places the heavy asbestos sement pipes in the trenches

Repair work to the pipe line after the flood of 1981. The picture was taken close to the bridge on the Ashton side of Montagu, where Van Riebeeck street starts

The initial years were filled with growing pains. Some irrigators were unhappy about the supply of water, others about bills and others we r e still unhappy about the differentiation of water tax between the two wards. One of the biggest problems in those years was the price we paid for electricity. The tariff we pay for electricity influences the water tax directly because it constitutes about 67% of our expenditure. Since the CBR is such a big user of electricity, several meetings were held with Evkom, the different Municipalities and the Minister to try and negotiate a tariff more favourable than the ruling tariffs. After several negotiations better tariffs were instated and in the late 1990’s a bargain was finally made with the municipality according to which we would pay a tariff linked to Eskom’s tariff, with a 5% surcharge. This decision has recently been revoked and new negotiations about tariffs are currently under way (2007).

Unexpected rains over filled the newly build Sarahs dam. The reinforcing steel for the concrete was already in place.

Water fowing over the unfinshed spilway of the Sarahs dam in Ashton causing damage to the already placed concrete reinforcing steel.


The flood of 25 January 1981 made a lasting impression on the residents of this area.
Heavy rainfalls were experienced in the Laingsburg and surrounding areas. Run-off water flowed to the
Pietersfontein dam. The dam has a cement wall with a handrail of about a meter high on top of it. So much rain fell in the catchment area that the floodgates were too small and could not release enough water fast enough. Water started to flow over the dam wall and debris started to collect against the handrails. The water level increased until the pressure got the upper hand and was swept over the wall.
It is this water mass that swept over the wall that was responsible for the flooding of Montagu together with the waters from the Kingna river from the Barrydale side of town. The ditches for the pipes through the Cogmanskloof was already made and several lengths of pipe were swept away. Afterwards these ditches had to be remade and the places where the pipe line crossed the river had to be lengthened since the river was wider after the flood. After the 2003 flood two of our lost pipes were found and collected for future use. They are still in very good condition.


The payment of the loan from the Department of Water Affairs was another matter that received attention during that 1980’s. It was realised that since water was already very expensive, the irrigators would not be able to pay their tax if the redemption instalments were also to be paid. A petition to write off the loan was drawn up and sent to the Department of Water Affairs. They did several feasibility and economic studies about the prosperity of the irrigators and in 1989 it was approved to write off the amount of more than R8 million that had accumulated due to interest since 1981. By writing off this huge amount, it had been made much easier for everyone to pay their taxes. An amount or R264 per hectare has been redeemed since 1990 until recently when we discharged the outstanding capital. There is still a small amount of deferred interest due that we are repaying.

Mr. Viljoen, Barnard and Mrs. Viljoen at the unveiling ceremony of the plaque in honour of Johan Viljoen for the work he did to have this scheme build.

The plaque in honour of Johan Viljoen on display at station 5


Roll players in the origin of the CBR

Throughout the history of the CBR there are several people who played an integral roll in the establishment of the scheme.
Some of our older members will know names like van der Leij, Jarvis, GH Whitehead, NDL van Niekerk, Kitto, Kenneth Knipe, IB Nel and PS Marais. These are only a few of the people who played a magnificant roll in the histor of CBR. More recent names that stand out are Johann Stiglingh (design engineer), Maritz Wessels (engineer from Stiglingh, Venter and associates), Koos Barnard (first chairman of the present Board), and Johan Viljoen (Campaigner for the Montagu scheme, founding member and former chairman), Boet van der Merwe (former chairman) and JD van Deventer (former chairman). There have been too many important names in our history of the scheme to mention everyone, but the following deserve a special mention:


JF (Koos) Barnard:
“Oom Koos”, as we all know him, arrived in Ashton in 1941 when his parents moved there. He attended school there until he left for Paarl Boys High after standard six. In 1949 his father resigned as Factory manager at LKB and founded Ashton Canning. He joined his father in 1950 and eventually took over from him. Through the years Mr. Barnard has established himself as a leader in the community by amongst others, his continues tenure of 31 years on the Municipal Council. During this time he was elected to Mayor eight times and another eight times to deputy Mayor. He also served on the divisional council for 16 years of which the last eight was spent as chairman of the roads division. He was serving in this capacity during the 1981 floods and had his hands more than full. All the road construction machines were busy elsewhere when the floods damaged most of this district’s roads. Despite it being in the middle of the peach season, he used his own initiative and organised private trucks and excavators to repair our roads. Since the early 1950’s Mr Barnard had been actively campaigning for constant water for Ashton from the Breede River and he was elected as the first chairman when the Ashton Irrigation Board was legally constituted on 8 March 1965. Since then he has kept on playing a pivotal roll in establishing a scheme to bring water from the Breede River to the town. When the future of the Ashton Irrigation Board seemed unsure due to the lack of a feasible scheme, he motivated them not to disband until all the possible schemes were examined. In August 1969 he was elected to chairman of the Ashton Pump scheme. It is from this body that the Ashton Irrigation Board originated and finally led to the founding of the CBR. Under his leadership the original Ashton Pumping-scheme was given new life and then went on to design and plan the scheme and to take it so far as the ministerial level. Even when the Minister refused permission for the scheme he went on campaigning for water from the Breede River until he reached his goal when the CBR was founded.
Mr Barnard realised that the only way Ashton would ever get the much-needed water was to take on a joint project with Montagu, as the Minister had proposed. Luckily there already existed a group of people in Montagu with the same aim. He made this proposal during a meeting with the Montagu Board on 10 September 1971, since it was going to be the only way in which the state was willing to make the necessary funds available. He regularly attended Montagu Board meetings and actively campaigned for collaboration between the two towns. In 1976 the two towns finally amalgamated their ‘water seekers’ and founded the present Cogmanskloof Irrigation Board (CBR).
Mr Barnard was elected as the first Chairman and has been on the Board ever since.
During the building of the scheme there were several problems concerning the financing of the scheme and the payment of contractors. The State had approved the loan for over a period of three years but due to escalating costs the construction time was shortened to 18 months. When the scheme entered the last phase of construction they were R800,000 short. Due to this shortage the Department of Water Affairs had ordered that all building should stop until the necessary funds were available.
Mr Barnard realised that once the contractors had left the construction site, it would take too much time to get them back and working again. The moving of the machines would also cost extra money and in the end the water will be delayed by at least a year. This was unacceptable. At that time Volkskas bank (ABSA) was Ashton Canning Co’s bankers but had nothing to do with the scheme. This didn’t stop him from putting Ashton Canning Co up as security for a personal loan of R800,000 from Volkskas. The money was made available and building could continue. Several months later the money was paid back to him when the Department of Water Affairs made the money available from the loan.


Johan Viljoen
Mr Viljoen was born in the De Doorns district and moved to Montagu in 1954 when he bought the farm ‘Knipeshope A’. It did not take long for him to realise that there was a big problem concerning irrigation water. The biggest reason he had moved to Montagu was because of the Poortjieskloofdam that had just been completed. The main motivation behind this new dam was to improve irrigation in the area under the dam. Unfortunately the building of this dam left the Kigna River completely dry. He went as far as suing the Minister of Water Affairs because the building of the dam had adversely affected the natural flow of the river and requested that a canal be built from the dam to the town. Due to this Minister Paul Sauer ordered that the now well known “Poortjieskloof canal” be built. He kept on campaigning and finally Minister PK le Roux ordered to increase the dam level with 4,5 meters so that it could capture more water during the periodical floods. By now irrigation was much better but still not good enough for long-term successful farming.
The shortage of water on his farm motivated him to continue in his search for methods to get more water. His research was mostly aimed at the Derdeheuwel area that got its water from the Poortjieskloof dam and “Die Vlakte” just east of Montagu. Other possibilities that he looked at were a new dam on the farm Dwariga and the so-called ‘Skotsmanskloof contour canal’. Unfortunately none of these possibilities were feasible.
It was not only the Derdeheuwel area that had a shortage of water, but the whole Montagu 16 agricultural community. In August 1969 the Montagu Agricultural Society appointed him to search for water for the whole community. By now he had realised that the Langeberg Mountains would never be able to supply enough water and that he had to look to the west and the Breede River.
A private company, Spilhaus, was asked to design a scheme. Unfortunately the engineers from the Department of Water Affairs and Minister N.A.K. van der Merwe had rejected this design as uneconomical and not feasible. After further negotiations with the Department and the Minister it was made clear to him that the only way they would ever get water from the Breede River was to join forces with Ashton in one scheme.
He sold his farm in 1983 and left Montagu in 1985



Tony Nunez
At the time that the tenders for the construction of the CBR pipeline went out, Tony worked for a firm called Kelley Brothers. They were busy with a sewerage and water distribution project in Knysna and were interested to tender. While he accompanied a colleague to inspect the Montagu and Ashton building-sites, he met Mr Stiglingh of the firm Stiglingh, van Rooyen and associates.
Kelley Brothers finally decided not to tender and it was left to Tony to let Mr. Stiglingh know of the decision. When their Knysna-project was finished, they were heading to Umtata for the next contract and then on to the next. At the time Tony’s oldest daughter had already attended six different schools in her Primary school career. When Mr Stiglingh offered him the post as Clerk of Works on the CBR project on 15 September 1979 he accepted immediately.
During the building of the scheme Tony was often called on to sooth the nerves of irrigators when they were disgruntled during building on their property. Sometimes the contractors were even refused access to property and had to remove trucks blocking the road. The escalating building cost was making the irrigators edgy and this made it no easier for the contractors. Near the end of construction the Board advertised the post of Scheme Manager. Tony never saw the advertisement himself but Mr Stiglingh brought it to his attention. The constant moving that is part of the construction industry had by now become too much for Tony and his family and he decided to stay in Montagu and to apply for the post. On 9 September 1981 he was appointed as the Scheme Manager/Secretary.
The first pumps started turning on 16 December 1981. In the end this long awaited moment turned into somewhat of an anti-climax for Tony. Several people were invited to attend but never showed. The main aim of starting the pumps was to fill the pipeline from the river to Montagu. The branchline to Sarah’s dam was closed off at that stage and the water was pumped to the small dam beneath the recently completed Knipeshope dam.
The only people that witnessed this moment were Tony and Mr Maritz Wessels (an engineer from Stiglingh, van Rooyen and associates). It took between six to eight hours for the water to arrive in Montagu. The end of the pipeline was still covered in dirt and it was not sure where the opening was. Unknown to Mr Maritz, he was standing on top of it and got quite a fright when the first wind blew from right under him!
During the first decade CBR’s biggest problem stayed the electricity tariffs of the different
municipalities. Escom and the municipalities of Montagu, Robertson and Ashton supplied the electricity. In comparison with Escom’s tariffs, the Montagu Municipality was 50% more expensive, Ashton about 30% and Robertson about 20%. In the fight for more favourable tariffs, Tony and Mr Koos Barnard visited Mr Danie Steyn, the Minister of Energy, in parliament five times.
The first computer that the scheme used to monitor their pump stations through the telemetry system was a Hewlett Packard 85, which largely resembled a typewriter (photo on p. 38). Over some months, Eddie le Roux assisted Tony in programming the computer to monitor each Irrigator’s water use. The ‘Basic’ program had 549 steps. The reading from each water meter was typed into the computer and the program then calculated the water used by every irrigator the past month.
In later years Mrs Phyllis Kriel used an Olivetti computer to improve the ‘Dbase’ program. This program was used until the “Y2K” bug in 2000 urged us to move to the current ‘Windows’ based program.
Under Tony’s management the scheme survived its growing pains and settled into the community. During this time lots of technical problems were experienced and several improvements were made but his hard work paid off and today the scheme runs smoothly and effectively. Later on the Board acquired a building from the KWV and transformed it into the comfortable offices we still use today.
Tony left the CBR in 1996 and at present he runs his own computer business in Montagu.


Johann Stiglingh
Johann Stiglingh is a native of Stellenbosch where he went to school at Paul Roos and received his degree in Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch. After university he worked for the Bloemfontein, Potchefstroom and Pretoria Municipalities.
In 1966 he opened his own consulting business and moved it to Cape Town in 1974 when he got involved in the building of the Langenhoven student centre for the University of Stellenbosch.
After finishing this centre he worked for the Ashton Municipality in building their new Water Refinery. Mr Koos Barnard was Mayor of the Municipality and Chairman of the CBR during this project. When the Department of Water Affairs experienced difficulties with the design of the scheme Mr Barnard approached Mr Stiglingh to finish the design. At this stage Mr Stiglingh had not received approval from the Department of Water Affairs to do this kind of work as professional engineer and still had to apply for approval. This happened by sending a delegation to Pretoria to confer with officials from the Department.
The original design the Department was working on included building a series of in-line booster pump stations. Mr Stiglingh realised that this plan was not functional since if one pump would stop, the rest of the pumps would all stop. He found it necessary to build reservoirs on higher points along the line to ensure that water would still flow to the lower lying regions if one pump station would shut down.
Another change that he made in the original design was in the route of the pipe line. The Department planned to take the pipeline around the Cogmanskloof tunnel, but he foresaw difficulty in the construction process and pushed for taking the pipe through the tunnel. It was feared that construction would damage the historically valuable old fort on top of the hill this tunnel runs through.
Mr Stiglingh started his alliance with the CBR in May 1979 and it lasted for twenty years until 1999 when he finally called the scheme farewell. His last project was the improvement of the Ladysmith Sewerage system. At his retirement he handed his firm over to his partner in Stiglingh, Venter and Associates (as it was now called), Mr Venter. The last work this company did was the building of the Stellenbosch Irrigation Scheme in 1994. Mr Venter finally closed the company in the late 1990’s.
Johann Stiglingh is still living in Stellenbosch.


The Scheme today(2006)

The Scheme was built in 1981 and consisted of nine pump stations, three big storage dams and two smaller balancing/levelling dams. A tenth pump station at Marthinusvlei in Ashton was added in 1994 and in 1996 the eleventh one was built on the Runningstreams line south of Ashton. About 120 kilometres of pipe is used to distribute the water throughout the whole district. The main irrigation district is situated in the magistrate’s district of Montagu and a smaller part is situated in the district of Robertson. This area reaches from the Breede River in the south, over the Langeberg Mountains to it’s boundary in the north, the Waboomsberg Mountains. The western boundary includes the farms Zandvliet, Rietvallei and Wilde Paarde Kloof, while the farms Klipkuil, Abrikooskloof and Rietrivier are part of the eastern boundary. Parts of the Keisie Rivervalley are included in these boundaries, as well as the Dwariga, Kingna and Pietersfontein Rivervalleys. The towns of Ashton and Montagu are also included within these boundaries and also receive water from the scheme.
Normally an irrigation district is not divided into different sub districts, but by exception our
district has been divided into five sub districts for practical and economic reasons. The water
tariffs of each of these districts are different due to differentiation that is applied at the allotment of costs. The Langeberg Mountains that lie from east to west over the district divides it into two natural sub districts, the Ashton and Montagu districts. The Montagu district consists of the part under the 305 meter contour line and three wards above the 305 meter contour line. These are:
Ward A: The Goedemoed/Harmonie area
Ward B: The Middelvoetpad/Pietersfontein area
Ward C: The Agter-Langeberg area
The storage dams (Knipeshope, Sarah’s dam and Goedemoed) are filled during the winter months since the withdrawal rate during the summer is too low to provide the peak demand.
During the summer all the pumps run day and night, seven days a week. Normally the season is eight months long and ends 31 May each year. The pump stations are monitored though an extensive radio-telemetry system. The flow rate, the pipeline pressure and condition of the electric motors are constantly monitored to ensure optimal function. A loud alarm is issued the moment something deviates from the normal parameters. After-hours the alarm is sent to the person in charge by sms to ensure that it will receive immediate attention.


A few statistics concerning the scheme
Total ha listed: 2 896 ha
Agricultural water: 2 736 ha
Water for other use: 160 ha
Capacity of the dams
Knipeshope dam: 3 550 000 m³
Goedemoed dam: 380 000 m³
Sarah’s dam: 1 263 000 m³
Nuweland dam: 11 000 m³
Witklei dam: 11 000 m³


Some of the pumps can be controlled through the telemetry system, the computer in the office or from the cell phone. This makes certain that, in case of an emergency like a burst pipe, the other pumps can be shut down to prevent damage to property and other equipment.
The first CBR-office was on the farm Knipeshope at the pump station but due to the increased noise levels it was moved to the divisional council’s building. The CBR-office moved again when the Board first leased and later bought the KWV building at the south end of Kohler Street. Since 1993 both the office and the workshop is situated here. Mr Koos Barnard was responsible for the ongoing negotiations that later enabled the Board to purchase this building in 1997.


Pump station 1 (Koos Barnard Pump Station)

Pump station 1 is situated on the banks of the Breede River in Ashton on the farm Goudmyn near the well known van Loveren Cellar. It is the main pump station of the scheme. Normally all the water that is needed for the scheme is withdrawn by these pumps. This station consists of four pumps (pump station 1A) that withdraws the water into a cement cistern. These pumps are set on a concrete platform on the riverbank.

These four pumps are ‘direct displacement pumps’. This basically means that there is a propeller fixed to the shaft under the surface of the water. The shaft is vertical in the middle of the pipe in which the propeller pumps the water to the surface. The revolving propeller pushes the water upwards in the pipe.

Summer discharge: 2 600 m³/hour
Electricity cost per month: ± R140 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 7.40 cent
Number of pumps: 4 on river 3 in pump station
Motor rating: 55 kW PS 1A/550 kW PS 1B
Discharge operating pressure 10 – 11.5 bar/1 m³/hour = 1 000 liter per hour

From the cistern the water is brought to three pumps in the pump house (pump station 1B) and then pumped into the scheme by two of the three pumps. The third pump acts as stand by pump. All of them are centrifugal pumps.

There used to be three 450 kW motors installed on the three pumps, but after the Montagu Municipality joined the scheme in 1993, they had to be enlarged. The electric motors were replaced with 550 kW motors and the old pumps were replaced with new ones from Salweir. One of the original pumps was later moved to a Montagu pump station to supply the Derdeheuwel district with water. Over the last couple of years, the scheme has pumped about 17 million kilolitres from the river anually. That is 17 000 000 000 litres, about 3 777 million gallon. There is a 700 mm diameter asbestos cement pipeline between this pump station and nr 2 station on the farm Goree in Ashton. It is 10,5 km long. There is a T-piece at the train bridge in Ashton where the main pipeline splits into a 450 mm diameter line to Sarah’s dam next to the Swellendam road and a 600 mm pipeline to pump station two.


Pump station 2

This booster pump station is north of the Cogmanskloof River on the farm Goree, right across from the Swellendam turn-off outside of Ashton. This station pumps the water from station one further on to the Knipeshope dam in Montagu, 10 km away. When the Montagu Municipality joined the scheme these pumps were also enlarged to supply the greater demand for water from Montagu.

Summer supply: 1 400 m³/hour
Electricity cost per month: ± R50 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 5.50 cent
Number of pumps: 3
Motor rating: 220 kW
Discharge operating pressure: 9 – 11 bar
Supply area: The whole of Montagu and 100 ha to Ashton

All three of the pumps at this pump station can run together. Normally only two of these pumps are working and the third left for emergencies. Due to the additional enlistment from 1993, it has been necessary to run all three of these pumps at times since 2003 to handle the greater demand for water. To accommodate this, the electrical switch gear was replaced in 2003 with switchboards with a bigger capacity to handle the greater demand for electricity. From pump station two the pipeline runs through the Cogmanskloof, along the old historical road, through the tunnel and besides the river till it reaches Montagu. This pipeline is 600 mm in diameter, except for short stretches where it crosses the river. Here it is 500 mm in diameter. The pipeline crosses Montagu under the northern pavement of van Riebeeck Street until it passes the nature reserve and turns left to cross the R62 and finally ends up in the Knipeshope dam.


Pump station 3

This station is situated on a sideline next to the Ashton Municipality’s water refinery, near the Ashton Wine Cellar. This is a booster pump station direct in line with station one. It pumps water in the direction of Robertson for the Ashton Wine Cellar and two other irrigators as well as to the Marthinusvlei area in the north. There are two pumps installed on both of the pipelines from this station. They are small high-pressure pumps and are less efficient than the other bigger pumps.

Summer discharge: 250 m³/hour
Electricity cost per month: ± R20 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 15 cent
Number of pumps: 4
Motor rating: 45 & 30 kW
Discharge operating pressure: 18 bar A line/10 bar B line
Supply area: 185 ha in the Marthinusvlei area


Pump station 4

This pump station is the second biggest and is situated against the Sarah’s dam wall next to the road to Swellendam, just past Zolani. Although this pump station is situated next to the road, it cannot be seen. Water flows from the main station through the pump station to Sarah’s dam. There are two pairs of pumps on both sides of this pipe that pumps water to the Stockwell and Runningstreams area. If the demand for water is greater than the amount of water being pumped from pump station one, Sarah’s dam carries the balance. As this usually happens in the summer, the dam has to be pumped to capacity through the winter. The same situation exists at pump stations five and eight in Montagu, with the Knipeshope and Goedemoed dams. About 320 m³/h is supplied to the Stockwell area at 12 to 15 bar. This area stretches to Mr Leicher’s farm, “La Montanara”. The Runningstreams area lies to the south west of the pump station and receives about 300 m³/h.

Summer discharge: 600 m³/hour
Electricity cost per month: ± R28 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 7 cent
Number of pumps: 4
Motor rating: 160 kW Stockwell/132 kW R/streams
Discharge operating pressure: 13 bar Stockwell/10 bar R/streams
Supply area: 491 ha to the Stockwell and Running streams


Pumpstation5(JohanViljoenpumpstation)

This pump station is the heart of the scheme on the Montagu side. Water arrives here from the Breede River, through the Cogmanskloof and besides van Riebeeck Street until it falls into the Knipeshope dam. From this dam it is pumped further to the Irrigators in the Montagu district. As in the case of pump station four, the water is delivered into the dam and then pumped further to two sides.

Summer discharge: 2 000 m³/hr
Electricity cost per month: ± R90 000
Cost per 1 000 litres: ± 8.5 cent
Number of pumps: 6
Motor rating: 220 kW
Discharge operating pressure: 10 – 12 bar
Supply area: 2 012 ha. The whole Montagu farming area

There are six pumps in this station, three on each side of the pipeline. The one pumps water in the direction of Barrydale, through the Derdeheuwel area to Rietvlei nr 1. The other set pumps water to the Keisie via pump stations seven and eight.

We have recently raised the Knipeshope dam wall with half a meter and the overflow with one meter. This provides extra storage capacity of 470 000 m³ (67 ha). This brings the total storage capacity of Knipeshope dam to 3 550 000 m³. The wall is approximately 18 meters high and 350 meters long. The water from this dam supplements the shortage that pump station two generates in the summer months.

Pump station five delivers in the direction of Derdeheuwel up to 1 100 m³/h at a pressure of more or less 10-11 bar and to the Keisie about 800 m³/h at ±12 bar. Another smaller pipeline originates form this pump station and serves the farm “Kliprug” and three irrigators with about 170 m³/h.


Pump station 6

From pump station five the pipe line heads in the direction of Derdeheuwel over the farm Witklei in the direction of Barrydale. Pump station six is about ten kilometre south-east of Montagu on the farm Rietvlei.

Witklei dam, the next levelling dam is situated on the farm Witklei, between pump stations five and six, at the highest point, approximately 305m above sea level.

Summer supply: 200 m³/hour
Kragkoste per maand: ± R7 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 8.0 cent
Number of pumps: 4
Motor rating: 55 & 30 kW
Discharge operating pressure: 9 & 5 bar
Supply area: 132 ha to the Rietvlei and Leeurivier areas

There are four pumps at this station. Two of the pumps pump water to the farm Rietvlei and the other two pumps water in the direction of Barrydale on the south of the R62. These pumps are small centrifugal pumps. If station five’s pumps are stopped the Witklei dam provides pump station six with water.

The supply area of this pump station is known as Ward C or the Agter Langeberg district and reaches as far as the farms Leeurivier and Rietvlei.


Pump Station 7

This booster pump station is on the farm Nuweland, about ten kilometres north-west of Montagu. This station is one of the two that Eskom supplies directly with electricity and is situated near the second of our small levelling dams. This dam is aptly named Nuweland dam after the farm it is situated on. It receives the water pumped from station five and is p u m p e d o n t o t h e Goedemoed dam and station eight. The main function of station seven and eight is to supply the two wards in the Goedemoed and Pietersfontein areas of water. Originally the scheme would have ended here, but after several requests from the farmers in the Keisie and Pietersfontein, it was decided to stretch the scheme to include these two areas. These two areas are known as Wards A & B.

Summer supply: 450 m³/hour
Electricity cost per month: ± R19 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 5.0 cent
Number of pumps: 2
Rating of motors: 220 & 185 kW
Discharge operating pressure: 9 bar
Supply area: 376 ha. The whole area of the scheme in the Keisie beyond the farm Nuweland.


Pump Station 8

This is the station furthest from Montagu in the direction of the Koo. The pump station is situated next to the road on the farm Goedemoed. The Goedemoed dam can be found right across the road from the pump station. This station provides the upper Keisie to the farm “Bosrivier” with water. It also supplies water to the Pietersfontein area, as far as the farm Grootland.  During the winter months these pumps are also used to supply some farms with “winter water”. This water is additionally enlisted and only supplied during the winter months, then stored for use in the summer months. There is a greater risk attached to this water since the scheme only supplies this water when it is practically possible. In very dry winters or when resrictions are emposed, the CBR dams must be filled first. Consequently this water is reconsidered yearly and supplied according to individual need.

Summer supply: 340 m³/hour
Electricity cost per month: ± R22 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 8.0 cent
Number of pumps: 2
Motor rating: 160 kW
Discharge operating pressure: 12 & 9 bar
Supply area: 270 ha. Upper Keisie up to the farm Boschrivier and the Pietersfontein area


Pump Station 9

This is a smaller pump station outside of Ashton, right across from Zolani. It consists of two pumps that supply water to the orchards and vineyards in the area around the Swellendam road and R62 connection. Since these pumps deliver their water directly to the vineyards without the use of a buffer, the pumps are only used during the summer months. This station differs from the rest, since both pumps run throughout the peak summer months when there is a high demand for water. Usually one pump is left as a support pump, but due to the high demand for water in the hot summer this is not the case here. When the demand reduces only one pump is used at a time to reduce the running cost.

Summer supply: 200 m³/hour
Electricity cost per month: ± R5 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 9.0 cent
Number of pumps: 2
Motor rating: 30 kW
Discharge operating pressure: 7 bar
Supply area: 60 ha in the area around the Swellendam road and R62 connection


Pump Station 10

This station was built in 1994 at the top of the line that services station three. It serves as an in-line booster pump station that enables the scheme to deliver more water to the top end of the pipe line in the Marthinusvlei area. New multi stadium pumps were installed in station three at the same time this station was built. It was wired so that both pumps can run together and pump water into the same line to ensure that enough water is supplied to station ten.

Summer supply: 60 m³/hour
Electricity cost per month: ± R5 000
Cost per 1 000 liters: ± 10.0 cent
Number of pumps: 2
Motor rating: 15 kW
Discharge operating pressure: 7 bar
Supply area: 65 ha in the upper part of the Marthinusvlei area

These two stations are in radio connection in order to be able to control each other and to ensure that the pressure in the pipeline does not get too high if the pump in station ten would somehow stop. If this pump stops and the pumps in station three keep on running, the pressure in the line would become too high and would lead to burst pipes. The radio connection alerts station three that the pump has stopped and station three automatically stops one of its two pumps. Danger averted. There are two pumps in this station of which one is a standby unit. It is only used when the other pump breaks or is stopped for maintenance. Motors in this station is of the so called slow speed rating. They run at 1 400 rpm versus the 2 900 rpm of the motors in stations 3 and 6.


Pump Station 11

It is the newest of our pump stations and was built in 1996 as a booster pump station to push water from station four up into the Runningstreams line. It is equipped with two 30 kW motors of which one is in use and one is on standby. This station was built to supply the additional enlistment on the Runningstreams line, but is currently only used as a stand- by station. The additional enlistment has not yet been utilised.

Station 11 has a breathtaking view over the Langeberg Mountains and Ashton five and a half kilometres to the north. The ravine that starts at the station and reaches to the south is known as Brakkloof for its brackish water.


The Board and personnel

Former State President Nico Diederichs proclaimed the founding of the Cogmanskloof Irrigation District and the Cogmanskloof Irrigation Board on 31 August 1976. This proclamation was published in the Government Gazette of 17 December 1976.

At the time of proclamation the Board consisted of: (Date of retirement in brackets)

JF (Koos) Barnard (was still serving when prospectus was published in 2006) Chairman
Johan Viljoen (1983)
IB Nel (1980)
JW Bruwer (1978 & 1981 was still serving when prospectus was published in 2006)
PS Marais (1979)
WJ Malherbe (1981)
GF (Boet) van der Merwe (1996)
PP Jordaan (1981)

Mr Barnard and Mr JW Bruwer are the only of the original Board members that still serves on the Board. Mr Barnard’s involvement in the search for water for Ashton since the early 1950’s has made him a man that has been in the service of this district for more than fifty years!

Johan Viljoen sold his farm in 1983 but stayed on as secretary of the Board for several more years. In 1983 he was succeeded by JL Jordaan who only stayed on a couple of months. Kierie van Deventer has served in this post since 1983.

IB Nel resigned in 1980 and was succeeded by JN (Nico) Kriel, C van der Walt (1985), PAS le Roux (1986), JD van Deventer (1999) and Jacques Kriel who presently serves on the Board.

Johan W Bruwer left the Board for three years in 1978 and was succeeded by MH Hill (1985), DK Leicher (1992) and E Leicher at present.

PS Marais (1979) was followed by Lou de wet (1981), JFD Kriel (1983) and C Jordaan at present. WJ Malherbe (1981) was succeeded by H Bruwer who is currently serving.

GF (Boet) van der Merwe left the Board in 1996 and Karel du Toit was elected to his place. PP Jordaan (1981) was succeeded by JW Bruwer to the present day.

Since 1999 the Municipality serves on the Board as a full Board member.

Mrs EH Viljoen acted as the Board’s first secretary until Mr Johan Viljoen sold his farm in 1983. On 13 March 1987 Phyllis Kriel was appointed as secretary. After her came Ms G Fourie (1990), Martie Zondag (1992) and Jeanne Joubert (neé Heunis) to 2004. Herma Visser is currently the CBR’s secretary.

Tony Nunez was Manager from 1981 to his retirement in1996. After him Rudolph van Dijk was appointed. He is still in this post.

The technical personnel (Fitter and Turner) have changed regularly throughout the years. In 1994

Morné Fourie was appointed to do pump maintenance. In 1996 he got assistance when Dennis Taylor was appointed. Morné left the CBR in September 2006 to start his own business.  After him Rohann Datson occupied this post until July 2006 and from December 2006 until his tragic death on 24 March 2007 Pieter Verreynne helped Dennis  with maintenance. Our technical assistants were  also  very inconsistent during the first couple of years but since 1999 Chris Steyn and Jan Draaier have stayed with us. The maintenance of the scheme would have been impossible without these people.

The commemorative bronze plaque that was unveiled by minister CV van der Merwe on 16 April 1982 on an occasion held at pump station 5. Board members listed on this tablet served on the board in 1982 when it was unveiled. The bronze plaque is now on display at the office in Kohler Street

The office building in Kohler Street

Knipeshope Dam in Montagu.

The full capasity of the dam is 3,5 million cubic meters and the length is 900 meters. The wall is roughly 18 meters high. It is the biggest dam on the sheme and is filled from April to September each year.


Service suppliers to the CBR

The Board makes use of several different companies/bodies to ensure the sustained functioning of the scheme. We have build up very good relationships with some companies over the last 25 years and this has provided us with a measure of stability with reference to services and products.

The survival of this scheme depends on a couple of things of which money plays the biggest part. In the beginning we had to borrow money to get off our feet. These days we luckily comply with the lawful requirement to have a reserve fund.

Volkskas (ABSA) played an important part when we were in financial dire straits during the construction of the scheme. Contractors wanted to remove their equipment from the premises because the government couldn’t provide the necessary funds fast enough. Volkskas made R800 000 available to Mr Barnard himself to enable us to continue with the construction. Twenty-five years ago R800 000 was a lot of money and would have bought at least three farms! ABSA’s support did not stop there. Through the years they have kept on supporting us, even through times when our account was overdrawn with almost a million rand.

Today we keep our reserve fund in ABSA’s money market fund where we have a special service fee agreement. We also use their Internet facilities and retirement provident fund.


Money is important, but without pumps and pipes the scheme would not have existed. There are some companies who have been with us from the start.

KSB Pumps and Valves (Pty) Ltd is an international pump and valve manufacturer with a huge range of specialised pumps and valves for a variety of sectors and applications in water supply, waste water management, the energy, industrial, construction and mining industries. This company has branches in Cape Town, Durban, Richardsbay, Secunda, Vaal triangle, Nelspruit and Port Elizabeth with their head office in Johannesburg. KSB has years of experience in these fields and we use them with full peace of mind. Their pumps are used in several of our pump stations, 15 of the 39 to be precise. We use their multi stadium pumps as well as

their single stage sentrifugal pumps very effectively. The multi stadium pumps have the capability to pump water at a high-pressure level. In truth these pumps are two pumps in one that rely on the principle that the one pumps water directly into the other and increases the pressure in the process. The photograph next to this is of a three-stadium pump that is in truth three pumps behind each other.

After 25 years in service these pumps are still in excellent working order due to the parts that are readily available and the great service from the branch in Cape Town.


CBR is one of the few  irrigation schemes that measure the water that is pumped to the irrigators. All of our extraction points and pump stations have water meters. This enables us to accurately portray the cost of water at different places. According to these figures the amount of water tax can be established accurately. Initially mechanical meters were used that consisted of a fan that is turned by the water and then propels the measuring mechanism. The wear on these meters are very high due to the unpurified river water that we pump. The most of our extraction points still use these meters since there isn’t electricity available nearby. Modern technology has made electronic measurement of water possible. These meters generate a magnetic field through which the water has to flow and calculates the quantity of water that flows through it by measuring how much the magnetic field is deflected by the water. These meters are more than 99,5% accurate, against the 95-98% accuracy of the mechanical meters. During the last couple of years CBR has acquired several of these meters from the company Emitech that distributes the Flowmetrix meters. Amongst others we have installed two 600 mm diameter meters, a 500 mm and a 450 mm meter at our pump stations. At pump station one the meter is additional to the old one that is still there, at pump station two we have replaced the old meter and at stations four and five the meters have been placed in the incoming pipeline that did not have meters. Electronic meters have the ability to measure water accurately in both directions. This is important to us at pump stations with dams where we have to measure the water flowing into the dam and, in summer, what is flowing out. These meters are connected telemetrically to the office. In this way we can monitor what the supply of the different pumps are. Water can be managed better if it can be m e a s u r e d a c c u r a t e l y. Flowmetrix meters are produced and calibrated in Durban. This makes it much more advantageous than imported ones.


Our telemetry system (tele = distance, metry = measurement) is a comprehensive radio system that is used to monitor every pump station and pump from the office. It consists of radio and telemetry equipment in every pump station that sends the data directly from the station to the office. It tells us what pumps are on and what the pressure and flow rate in the pipes are. It also measures the dam levels and the quality of the river water. There is a radio repeater station on top of the Langeberg Mountains that brings the information from Ashton over the mountains to Montagu and vice versa.

The office has a control computer that processes the data and changes it into graphics. Certain parameters are programmed beforehand as alarm situations. If one of the alarm situations should occur, the computer would give a loud warning and send a sms to the cell phone to report the problem.

This system was installed by Spectrum in the early nineties and is still maintained by them.  The “Teleranger”equipment is very reliable and rarely requires repairs to the components.

Several expansions have been done through the years. So much that some of the pumps can even be controlled from the office and via sms’s. Some of the pump stations control each other. If one pump starts (e. g. Ps 3) it sends a signal to the next station (PS 10). When the second pump station has started a pump, it sends a signal back to the first station (PS 3) so that more pumps can be started if necessary.

Some of the magnetic water meters are equipped with cell phone modems and can send information from the extraction point on the farm to the computer at the office. This equipment is also very reliable and seldom needs repairs.

There are many other companies that provide CBR with products that provide excellent service. Without these suppliers the pumps would soon stop and the pipes will stand empty. Thank you to each and every one who makes it possible for us to supply water constantly.


Graphics and statistics

There is a proverb that says, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The graphics we have used here shows the trends of certain items that play an important part in the managing of the scheme.

State water tax

This is the tax that any person or body that receives water from any kind of Government work has to pay to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). A Government Work is any dam, irrigation furrow, weir or anything else that was built by DWAF to provide irrigation water. This tax is used to finance the capital cost of the project and to partly cover the operational costs.

The CBR receives water from the Breede River just before the Zanddrift Weir. The whole river from the Brandvlei dam to this weir, the dam included, is seen as the Brandvlei dam system from which we pump water. It is for the water we receive from this Government Work and for its administration thereof that we have to pay state water tax. The graphic on the right shows how much this tax has increased since 1998. The new National Water Act was instated in 1998 and changed the basis of tax estimation. We pay about seven times more now than in 1997!

Water pumped from the Breede River

The CBR has to supply about 20 842 790 m³ water per annum if every irrigator should use their full quota. To be able to deliver all the water to the farm, we have to extract more from the river to make allowance for losses. Our greatest loss is the evaporation of water from the dams. Calculations have shown that evaporation from the Knipeshope dam is about 12% of its full capacity, or about 360 000 m³ a year. It represents 51 hectares of water. If we should include the other two dams into this calculation, the figure will probably double.

Our total losses due to evaporation is around 3,5%. If leakage and other losses are added, the figure could escalate to 5 to 10%.

If all of this is taken into account, CBR has to pump about 22 million m³ a year from the river to fulfil its commitments. The graphic on the right shows that we almost reached this figure during a dry season in 2002.

After the dry season of 2002 the low levels of the Brandvlei dam compelled us to introduce water conservation measures. This decreased our extraction from the river to only 14 million m³. Our average extraction during a “normal” year is around 18 million m³.

Electricity costs

This is the single greatest expense of the scheme and has stabilised to about 67% of our total annual expenses during recent years. That is why it is very important to regularly renegotiate with the suppliers for the most favourable tariffs possible.

We buy electricity directly from Eskom for two of our pump stations, stations seven and eight in the Keisie. The Breede River Wineland Municipality supplies the rest of our electricity. We buy our electricity at a bulk tariff structure. This allows us to pump less at certain times of the day, or even not at all. By doing this we exclude the more expensive tariffs of the day time.

This tariff has two components, demand (kVA) and consumption (kWh). The demand is calculated according to the highest reading of the month, irrespective of the pumps running or not. If we have only pumped one hour, for example, we still pay the same as if we have been pumping for the whole month. Logically we try to keep a pump running for the whole month if it is necessary to start it. In this way we make optimal use of the kVA tariff.

Consumption is a cost that is paid for the amount of energy the pump uses. The longer the pumps are used, the higher this cost becomes.

Since 2001 our annual electricity cost has been more than R3,25 million.

Water tax levy

What does the water that is supplied by the CBR cost? Different tariffs exist within the scheme of which only those that are used in the five agricultural wards during the summer are shown in the next graphic.

With the establishment of the capital redemption tax in 1992, there was a sharp spike in water tax that stabilised till 1996. Afterwards the Board presented an excellently structured plan according to which water tariffs would be calculated in future. In 2006 the relief that the redemption of capital from the Government loan brought was given back to the irrigators. This caused an important drop in tariffs.

After 25 years the price of our water is on par with other similar schemes in the surrounding areas. Here follows the 2006-prices of three other pump schemes, converted to the same amount of water per hectare that CBR supplies.

Today CBR prices are between R1 647 and R3 152 per hectare
Worcester East scheme       R2 905
Hex Valley scheme                             R3 725
Vyeboom scheme in Villiersdorp       R3 377
Oranje-Riet Canal scheme        R367 to R654

Oranje-Riet is a huge scheme that distributes water from the Orange River through 184 km of canals to 265 premises in the Douglas/Richie/Luckhoff area. This scheme is purely based on gravitation and supplies 11 000 m³/ha (contrast to the CBR’s 7 450 or 7 000 respectively).

Individual narration

A couple of people have found time to share their memories of the scheme with us. We have placed their memories as we received it, without any changes and without taking out ideas and pieces of the history we have already heard from other people. A special thank you to everybody who went to the trouble and took the time to write down their memories from the past 25 years.

A thought for the day: a retrospective view of the origin of the CBR scheme

Johan Viljoen

I started farming in Montagu in 1954 on the farm Knipe’s Hope A. The main thing that convinced me to buy the farm was the new Government dam, Poortjieskloof, that had just been completed.

In 1954 I sued the Minister of Water Affairs because he had stopped the natural flow of the Kigna River by building the Poortjieskloof dam and there was no canal to service irrigators. We were situated on the bottom part of this scheme and had to be content with what little water reached us after 23 miles. By unleashing the fox under the chickens I spurred Minister Paul Sauer into ordering that the concrete canal be extended so it reaches the last irrigators at only a slight increase in extra tax.

My next cause was to treatise the next Minister of Water Affairs, PK le Roux, to raise the Poortjieskloof dam with 15 feet so it could store more water from the periodical floods. This improved our plight but it was still not enough for sustained and successful farming.

Two other possibilities to bring water to Derdeheuwel were looked at, the Skotlandskloof contour canal in the Langeberg Mountains and the Dwariga dam on Meulplaas. There were several reasons why these options were not feasible.

Untill then I was only concerned with bringing water to the Derdeheuwel area. During a Montagu Agricultural Society meeting in August 1969 a proposal was approved to appoint me to research a scheme for the ‘whole’ Montagu, not only for the Kingna Board District. I started this process by assembling a committee that consisted out of all the different branches of society, for example the city council, Agricultural Society, businesses etc. My second course of action was to start negotiations about a scheme with companies like Spilhaus and Dowson & Dobson.

One night, one of many spent brooding about water; I asked myself why I couldn’t start looking past the insufficient water supply of the Langeberg Mountains in the east? I should start looking to the west, where the Breede River was dumping the most of its water into the ocean at Witsand at that stage.

Our first try with a scheme designed by Spilhaus, was rejected by Department of Water Affairs engineers, but I could already smell the water from the Breede River and did not stop pestering the Department. In the end the involved parties at the Department conceded and proposed that we persuade the Ashton farmers to join us. At the time they were also busy with treatise and had also received the cold shoulder from the Department. A meeting between the Ashton and Montagu farmers was organised and at this meeting it was agreed to join forces.

Only three of my original Board members were left at that time and it was decided to assemble a

committee out of four Montagu and four Ashton irrigators. Afterwards the process accelerated due to the knowledge and experience on both sides.

We were to receive water from the Breede River downstream from Robertson on the farm Goudmyn, the property of Gawie Viljoen. We had to work closely with the Breede River Water Conservation Board since the Brandvlei dam was their property and jurisdiction. Montagu is not situated inside the Breede River valley and there were legal implications to prevent water from the river being used outside the valley. This problem was overcome with time and cooperation from the Breede River Water Conservation Board.

Then it was back to Water Affairs. At this time the Worcester farmers were busy planning a dam, the Brandvlei dam that would overflow into the Kwaggaskloof dam when full. This brought about that Brandvlei had to be enlarged and extra intake facilities had to be built. The Department of Water Affairs assumed control over the Brandvlei dam and it was enlarged as a government scheme to provide for the new CBR scheme as well as other similar schemes.

After years of struggling with the Department of Water Affairs, the Parliament finally acknowledged the scheme as a test scheme. If we made a success of the scheme and could carry the costs, which were very high in the beginning, the state was willing to consider other similar schemes. Shortly after the CBR was proclaimed, the Worcester East scheme was founded and started pumping water in 1989.

In those years it was unheard of to pump water higher than 250 feet and here we were looking at at least 1 200 feet. The pump scheme that Mr Stiglingh and Ass. designed would service 2 000 ha with water from the Breede River at an estimated cost of R13 million. The state made the money available over a period of three years. The engineers advised the CBR to build the scheme in 18 months due to costs escalating over a longer period. The Department and Minster approved this plan and gave permission to use extern funds for the construction. The biggest challenge was to convince the banks that we would succeed. By then it was the biggest and most expensive scheme for agriculture in the country. The Montagu and Ashton farmers were prepared to take it on and accepted the challenge.

Initially the Montagu farmers were hesitant to fully commit to the scheme due to the high costs, but finally everybody realised the advantage and enlisted for more water. The Ashton Municipality had also committed but after the Brinks Canning Factory closed the Montagu municipality lost it’s desperation for water and did not enlist for its original application.

I must recognise with gratitude that although we crossed roads, rivers, railways and private property to build the pipelines and storage dams, it was never necessary to make use of dispossession. There were some cases where serious persuasion was necessary, but in most cases the owners were willing to grant free access in the interest of the bigger community.

After the proclamation of the Irrigation District and the founding of the Board in 1976 the scheme gained momentum. The first extern loan of R50 000 was from Boland Bank but it soon became apparent that we needed larger amounts to tide us over while we waited for the state’s money. I had worked with the Land Bank as surveyor and proposed that we try them. We sent a strong deputation to Pretoria (where we have visited Water Affairs several times) to meet with a Mr Smith at the Land Bank’s head office. The Chief Director of Water Affairs also attended the meeting. After a thorough discussion and examination of our problem a loan of about R7 million was approved if the Minister (van Niekerk) would sign as surety. This was a first for a Minister. That the Land Bank approved the loan under such circumstances was another first. It was even mentioned in the Land Bank’s annual report.

Now we could continue with construction at full tilt. There were still times when the going got rough and the funds weren’t available. One of these times, against my better judgement, I sent an urgent cable to the Minister to procure R1,7 million. Afterwards I received a thorough dressing down from the Chief Director, Mr Muller, for not following the right procedures and channels. (By following the “right way”, it would have taken at least two weeks.) My way did actually work and we received the funds immediately.

Another first was the court case that the CBR
brought against the Land Bank in 1986.
An irrigator had fell behind with payment of his water tax
in 1985 and by March of 1986 he owed R38 429.38. The
Land Bank confiscated his property after a failed
insolvency auction in 1986.
Land Bank claimed that the Insolvency Act protected
them against the overdue water tax but according to the
National Water Act of 1956, the successor in title of the
property was accountable for the overdue tax.
The legal process CBR instituted against Land Bank
started in 1985 and was seen as a test case since the
Department of Water Affairs had never before sued Land
Bank. In 1989 the Supreme Court found in favour of
CBRand Land Bank appealed against the decision.
The appeal case was heard in Bloemfontein in 1991 and
the amount of R238 448.90 was awarded to CBR!
The involvement of the Department of Water Affairs and
Van Zyl and Hofmeyer were crucial to this case.

The other time that I angered the Minister, was when the treasury axed apportionments to Departments. After Water Affairs had informed us that our funds were also going to be curtailed, I read in the newspapers that some Departments’ budgets were getting smaller while others’ were getting bigger. In my mind those who got less were much more important that those who got more. This prompted me to write a letter to the Finance Minister in which I gave him my opinion and requested that more funds be allotted to Water Affairs since, in my opinion, Water Affairs was the most important Department of all. I even thanked the treasury in advance.

The next I heard of this particular letter was when my local M.P, Mr Geldenhuyze, confronted me about my latest exploit. He told me that the Minister concerned had recommended that he inform me to mind my own business and not to dictate to him. Mind you, all that I know is that our funding was not cut.

Another severe difficulty was to convince the Department of Roads that the pipeline should go through the Cogmanskloof tunnel and not around it. Initially they wanted us to complete the work in the tunnel within 24 hours, until I made them aware of things like stop/go traffic signs. We also persuaded the Railway to let us use their existing culvert for our pipeline, something that was totally against their policy.

We used six or seven contractors to finish the whole scheme within 18 months. Not even the Laingsburg flood could stop us! The world looked like a battlefield due to all the dust from excavating ditches and dams and the construction of the pump houses. There were countless problems that had to be addressed at the same time, for example the negotiations with Eskom and the Municipalities about the electricity supply. Luckily we had brilliant Consulting Engineers to assist us.

After thirteen years and all the planning, struggling and hard work that went into it, we received the big satisfaction of switching on the scheme and pumping water from the Breede River far up the Sarah’s River Mountain and Keisie and Baden Valleys. The full dams and the pipes that delivered water to the thirsty fertile earth was a beautiful sight to behold! The opening ceremony signalled a memorable day. Minister NAK van der Merwe addressed this ceremony and thoroughly congratulated us on a magnificent job well done. The Board and Mr van der Merwe were formally honoured with a bronze plaque at the main pump station on the farm Goudmyn.

All the farmers that are involved in the scheme agree that it is the best thing that could have happened to this area and that the water is expensive. Despite this fact everybody is laughing all the way to the bank with the money they make from fruit producedwith water supplied by the scheme.

Personally I want to thank the Department of Water Affairs, the three Ministers during this time and the civil servants at their head offices in Pretoria and the Section office in Cape Town, for all of their support. I also want to thank my co-chairman, Koos Barnard, and all the Board members since our founding. I also include my wife, even if she is not with us anymore. Thank you for all the encouragement and your work as secretary in later years.

I have tried not to mention too many names and dates since I am afraid of omitting someone or getting the dates wrong. You should understand that it has been twenty years since I have resigned and left Montagu early in 1985. After 30 years in Montagu and 20 by the ocean, I am finally back in De Doorns, the town of my birth.


GF(Boet)vanderMerwe

During the sixties the Montagu farmers started an investigation into acquiring water for the agricultural community. Dr Wand researched the possibility to pump water from the Breede River, across the Langeberg Mountains to the Koo and the Keisie, but this plan was abandoned due to the high cost. According to his research water would have cost 100 pounds per hectare.

During the initial years of CBR many people were morose and pessimistic about the scheme. Since the water was so expensive, it was nicknamed the Black Mamba. Later when the scheme started paying dividends, it was renamed to the Golden Vein!

For me it was a great honour to be part of the Board from the start of this project. This included several visits to ministers and other authorities to, for example, negotiate electricity tariffs and to get state aid for the water tax.

Even if it was and still is one of the most expensive schemes in the country, the irrigators and the town of Montagu would not have been able to survive without it. A lot of hard work and time went into making a success of this scheme and it was worth it.

The Minister once said that although the water was going to be expensive, it was up to the jockey of the farm to see that it reaches the finish line. Empty farms changed into excellent developed farms over time.


The Koo Scheme of dr Wand

During 1963 the Koo farmers researched a possible scheme to pump water to this valley. Dr Wand of Stellenbosch was in charge of this project to pump water from the Breede River near Robertson via a tunnel through the mountain to the Koo.

From Eilandia the water would have been pumped to a dam at the Limestone Quarry. From there a pipeline would have passed ‘Mowers station’ and have crossed the mountain at its lowest point to the farm Eikenhof in the Koo. The water would have been distributed from there to the rest of the Koo Valley and Montagu as far as Rietvlei nr 2 and Derdeheuwel. According to Dr Wand the water would have cost about R300 per hectare. The Minister of Water Affairs rejected this plan since, at that time, it was thought that R100 was the maximum price for water at which could be farmed economically. Nevertheless, at that time the Koo farmers were already paying R300 per hectare for water from their own bore holes. Irrigators next to the river who extracted water directly from the river was paying R14 per hectare and still asked the state for subsidies!

The scheme stayed dormant until Louis Bruwer (Engineer from Robertson) looked at it again in 1993. By then the new plan was to pump water from Silverstrand directly over Tierkop with five or six pump stations, to the farm of Niel Burger that is now well known for its tractor trips. From here the water would have been distributed through gravitation.

About a million cubic meters would have been pumped over the mountain over a period of twelve months through 250 to 300 mm diameter pipes. The five or six stations that would have pumped the water over the mountain would have been telemetrically synchronised. This water would have been supplementary to the already existing sources and would have supplied about 4 000 m³ per hectare (CBR supplies 7 450/7 000 m³/ha). Price wise it would have been very expensive, about R8 000 for the 4 000 m³ per annum but because it would have serviced one hectare, it would have been worth it. Agricultural economists checked and rechecked their calculations and found that the R8 000’s water would produce about R13 000’s worth of product.

The scheme was planned in detail and loans and tenders were already finalised. Those years the Department of Water Affairs still subsidised Irrigation Boards with about a third of new schemes and water works. This was the last time that such a subsidy had been approved. Everything was set.

Fourteen years ago R8 000 was a lot of money and almost to the end the farmers’ courage failed them. At that stage is was just too much money and the risks involved were too great. Mr Bruwer remembers that the access road up the mountain alone would have cost R400 000.

Since then a well-field and pipeline scheme has been built in the Koo and an Irrigation Board has been founded. The water is still not used on full scale.


The influence of the CBR scheme on Montagu and Ashton since its origin.

JD van Deventer

The scheme’s origins can be attributed people who realised that there had to be an alternative for the frustration of farming without water and for the financial implication of orchards and vineyards that lagged further and further behind not only because of drought, but also because of the poor quality of water during these times. Johan Viljoen and “oom” Koos will surely be remembered as the Fathers of the CBR. Their vision was the reason that an almost unthinkable project was embarked on.

Originally the scheme was proposed to the irrigators with an estimated annual cost of R150 per hectare. In 1979 this amount was increased to the unaffordable price of R180 per hectare. At least one or two tons of

each hectare’s production would have gone into paying this ghastly amount. This did not even include the capital cost to accommodate this water in irrigation systems. Controlled irrigation was still relatively unknown and very few farmers could utilise this small stream of water successfully. As is still the problem at the top ends of the scheme, the pressure was not enough to make direct irrigation from the scheme possible and the water had to be pumped again. The CBR pipe that was going to weave through the district was generally referred to as “The Black Mamba” and “The Black Death”. This scheme was meant to be supplementary to traditional sources of water, whether each farm’s beurtwater, bore holes, rainwater and even schemes like Pietersfontein and Poortjieskloof.

Then the water actually started to flow and suddenly droughts came and went without its effect being as severely felt as it had in the past. On many farms the supplementary source became the primary source. Everybody still talked about the price of the water, but les and less people complained about it. The Board received more and more letters enquiring about the availability of more enlistment, so much that a waiting list existed. Suddenly transactions were being made when enlistment changed hands. Nobody was speaking of the price of the water any more.

What once had looked like a dark picture for farming in the CBR service area, changed into a beautiful positive picture. The fact that there was a monthly water bill that had to be paid imperceptibly pushed the irrigators to perform. Unfortunately there also were some farmers who couldn’t make a success out of the situation. Maybe that is a normal result of such a big development.

One only has to look at the pride, neatness and the self-confidence that is achieved on the farms in our district, or at the hectares of “buitegrond” that is successfully farmed. You can also look at the amount of packing facilities and the fruit drying plants that has been built on farms in the recent past. This all happened even though it still takes one or two tons of each hectare’s production to pay a hectare’s water tax.

What did the CBR mean to the greater Montagu and Ashton communities? The financial stability surely brought a steadier income to the business community as a result of more steady production and less damages due to droughts. The workers also benefited from the scheme. More hectares have to be harvested, fruit drying and packing facilities have been built and wine cellars and canning companies have extended their capacities. The amount of farmers actually living on farms are currently much lower that 30 years ago since the government’s RDP program have enticed farm workers to move into newly developed town areas. Mechanisation, the chemical control of weeds etc as well as controlled irrigation has made it necessary to keep on fewer workers per hectare. Labour for pruning and harvesting has changed to a more contractual basis. The CBR scheme has definitely provided more work opportunities.

To summarise we can ask: What did the dream the CBR pioneers had mean for Montagu and Ashton? The answer lies in another question: What would Montagu and Ashton have been today without the CBR scheme?

Is CBR water really expensive? No, it is just the exchange rate that is not always in our favour.


Scotsman who came to Montagu to learn Afrikaans

Jim Law

Vrey & Maine came to Montagu on the Monday following the BIG FLOOD of 1981 and found Cogmanskloof washed away, so the long detour via Barrydale had to be made. The company had been awarded the 40 km pipeline to the Koo. I, Jim Law, joined the team a couple of weeks later, a real “rooinek” in Montagu, who could not speak Afrikaans. I quickly found out that it was useless to speak to the farmers in English when we wanted to excavate the pipeline through their lands. However, it was essential to communicate with the farmers, who, after all, were our customers. I also soon found out, after several cups of coffee in their farmhouses, that they could speak English.

As a result, Jim Law was the “Scotsman who came to Montagu to learn Afrikaans”. These were the words of chairman Viljoen at the “osbraai” in Ashton to celebrate the opening of the scheme.

The “Black Mamba”, as the farmers called it, was not an easy contract, as after the flood the river crossings became longer and there were many crossings of the Keisie River.

I will always remember the last river crossing on the Pietersfontein line. It had rained overnight and the farmer advised us that the Pietersfontein dam was full for the first time and that the river would come down soon. It was 12:00 Friday, we were busy casting the concrete encasement of the pipe, the pump was busy keeping the river bed dry, when all of a sudden the river came down. We quickly had to rescue the pump and Kempie, the foreman, said, “What do we do now?” to which I replied, “Kaap toe!” We came back on the Monday to look for the shutters and pipes and started all over again with the crossing.

I must admit, I learned many lessons on this contract, dealing with rivers, rocks, farmers, etc. Many friends were made with the farmers, Savage & Lovemore, Kallie Alberts, Jannie van Schalkwyk (SFS), Dowson & Dobson, Everite, Tony Nunez and Maritz Wessels.

We had some fantastic braais in the Kloof. I remember one night that there was a traffic cop waiting at the entry to the braai place, but someone gave him a bottle of brandy and he left.

Vrey & Maine did several other contracts in Montagu over the same period: Donkerkloof pipeline.

Ashton Canning 900 mm siphon under the river.

Lovers Walk, low water bridges and the suspension bridge to Montagu West replacing the ones washed away in the flood.

I have been 40 years in civil engineering, but the 18 months spent in Montagu have given me many happy memories, especially when I pour a glass of Drie Berge sherry.

One of the most memorable evenings was spent at a Keisie farm school concert, to which my wife and I were invited to by farmer Boet van der Merwe. It was amazing to watch 10 kids give the concert a fantastic atmosphere.

The pipeline was an expensive investment for the farmers, but when you drive through the area and see the results now, one can appreciate the visions of those involved. May all prosper as a result of the “BLACK MAMBA”.


Anecdotes about the design and management of CBR

Johann Stiglingh

Various stories, as requested.

The design and construction of the Cogmanskloof Irrigation Scheme (CBR) was a challenging and interesting project. The influence it has had on the whole irrigation district is phenomenal. Today beautiful cultivations can be found where orchards and vineyards previously pined away due to a lack of water and for me as engineer this is a delight and satisfaction each time I drive through Ashton, Cogmanskloof and Montagu.

The availability of water was of utmost importance to a farming community who was directly dependant on a constant source. This need was fulfilled by the good insight of a few leaders in the community. Together they founded Irrigation Boards and finally reached their purpose after countless petitions, reports and visits to the authorities. They realised their dreams and it is that embodiment that we see today.

We received the commission for this scheme in 1978/79. We had to plan it, get the contractors and we had to build it. The water finally flowed into the Knipeshope dam in December 1981.

We had an official opening by the Minister of Water Affairs at that time, complete with flags, a reception and speeches and inspections by the Big Whigs. Something they did not know was that the starter button wouldn’t work during the “dress-rehearsal” earlier that same day. What to do? The only answer was to station a technical guy behind the switchboard to throw the switch when the Minister pushed the button and abracadabra, the big pump started running!

Since it was imperative for the scheme to start up as soon as possible, up to six different construction firms were involved at times. Everybody had to be accommodated in the old Avalon

Hotel and the hotel was thoroughly shaken up! Tons of mischief happened there and they often partied till the early morning hours. From sheer necessity, and to everyone’s delight, I had to sleep in the Bridal Suite one night (alone of course). Luckily I survived the ordeal.

After several negotiations, we finally got the go-ahead for the pipeline to run under the road, through the Cogmanskloof tunnel. There were fears of disturbing the rock formations and damaging the old fort on top of the hill. A Geological survey had found that the contractor could only use one stick of dynamite at a time to blast away the rock under the road and initially he did follow these instructions. This process turned out to be too slow to this liking and one day I arrived at the site to find, to my great dismay, that he had used several blasts to clear a stretch of the trench. Grace was all that had saved him and the fort is still standing.

The biggest storm in human memory hit Montagu and the surrounding district late on a Sunday in January 1981. Although it did not have the same catastrophic consequences here as it had on Laingsburg, it still flooded the Pietersfontein dam and the Cogmanskloof thoroughly. Afterwards it looked as if someone had wiped the river clean with a big broom. No trees or plants survived the water. By then we were excavating and laying pipes through the Cogmanskloof and the damage was severe. Pipes were washed away in the flood or buried under sand and had to be excavated and reburied. We could only reach Montagu by the Tuesday and only by using the old road. Johan Viljoen was chairman and organised a flip over the area in an army helicopter to assess the damage to the different works and roads. A helicopter is not something to take on without a place to hold on to and to fly up and down mountains, gorges and cliffs takes some nerve! Such force of nature is unimaginable and we can only begin to understand its devastation. Thanks to the excellent cooperation between the contractors we were up and running again in no time.

At that time the Cogmanskloof was one of the biggest pumping schemes in the country and it benefited from the principles of fairly short term operation, balance between direct pumping and inter-stadium dams, and storage capacity. By providing irrigation water on a sustainable basis, the CBR has contributed more than its part to our country’s development to the benefit of this country’s whole population. A great achievement.


The next 25 years

Since the first pump started pumping water from the Breede River 25 years ago, the CBR have settled into Montagu and Ashton and become a part of our district. Today it is unthinkable that there was a time when the scheme did not exist and it is inconceivable that the scheme could ever stop. The scheme was originally designed as a supplementary source for agriculture but these days it is a primary source and dams and bore holes have changed to supplementary sources. The Municipality uses CBR as a permanent source of raw water and CBR provides a cheaper alternative for the upkeep of grass fields for schools and golf courses. Industries like the Wine Cellars and Canning Companies are using more and more water from the CBR as washing water and in their production processes.

It is not possible to calculate what the direct impact of the scheme has been on the district’s economy since there are too many unknown factors. The scheme supplies 2 736 hectares of agriculture water to irrigators. This is the amount of hectares that produces, creates work opportunities, generates tax and so forth. The influence of the scheme is great and we can proudly say that the R8 million the State had invested in us has generated a lot of money for the state. For example, if 2 700 hectares produces 20 tons at R1 000 a ton, the financial value is R54 million. The VAT on this amount is R7,56 million, about the amount the Government had written off for the scheme in 1990. Add to this figure the proceeds from further processing, excise duty and other levies and multiply this with 25 years. The primary fact stays that the Government made a great investment that generates a huge amount of money.

Now the future still lies ahead of us. The CBR will not go away. As long as the Brandvlei dam and the river has water, the scheme will supply water to its members. Since its conception, the scheme has gone from power to power, extended and kept on renewing itself. The original enlistment of 2 200 ha has grown to 2 914 ha and two new pump stations have been added.

We still regularly receive new enquiries about additional water. Research is being done about the Breede River system to determine if more water can be extracted from the dam and river. The prospects are rosy but the CBR cannot supply more water in its present form. If additional water is made available from the river, another scheme would have to be built to utilise it. The biggest question that has to be asked is “What will the implications of larger grants from the river mean to irrigators during times of water shortages, like in 2004?”

Agriculture requires constant improvements and expansions. The CBR is not stagnant and will provide where possible. If it means we have to expand, we will thoroughly look at the possibility. If it should happen that some irrigators are granted more water from the river, it may mean that we will have to build a second scheme…

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