Civil Engineering January-February 2022 | Vol 30 No 1

Civil Engineering January/February 2022 41 I n 1962 South Africa was reeling from the after-effects of the Sharpeville Massacre and the exodus from the British Commonwealth. Unexpectedly, the government announced the Orange River Project, a plan on a scale unknown in the country, to tame the Orange River and provide reliable water supply to trans- form the arid Karoo. The scheme included two large dams, the longest tunnel in the world, thousands of kilometres of irrigation canals, and completely new towns to serve the engineering work. The mood of the country lifted as overseas experts streamed in to work side-by-side with South African engineers to design and construct the enormous scheme. Thousands of workers were employed on construction, subsidiary industries flourished, and long-suffering farmers could at last look forward to stable water supplies. Now, 60 years later, the book commis- sioned by SAICE will commemorate the announcement of the project and 50 years since the opening of the project’s first element, the Gariep Dam. OVERVIEW The book describes, in terms understand- able by non-engineers, how the idea of the Orange River Project developed from early water experts, how the dams were designed and built, and how the country- side has been transformed to contribute to the present economy. It also tells the story of the people involved in a vast activity in a sparsely populated part of the country: engineers who overcame problems with ingenious solutions, farmers who were uprooted and changed their technology to suit new conditions, and sleepy villages which, for a few brief years, became thriving metropo- lises with international culture. It is a great South African success story penned by chief scribe Tony Murray, who is well-known in the SAICE fraternity for his numerous historical publications relating to the engineering profession in South Africa. He is sup- ported by a team of senior professional engineers, most of whom served years of their respective careers on this project, both in its design and construction, and have made their own contributions to aspects of the book. Apart from extensive research of published books, records and documenta- tion from many sources, numerous field trips have been embarked upon to the Northern and Eastern Cape and further afield, gathering data, project photo- graphs, and reminiscences of the project from a variety of sources. These include the many downstream beneficiaries of this extensive project on the Fish and Sundays River valleys, local farming com- munities, engineers and contractors, and their families, involved in the project’s design and construction and subsequent maintenance and dam safety inspections. The writer, on behalf of the History and Heritage Panel, recently had the privilege of preparing and presenting a poster exhibit of construction and contemporary project photographs at the recent 2021 SANCOLD Conference in Pretoria, showcasing this mega-project and forthcoming publication to South African water engineers. For more information Alastair Morgan, Pr Eng FSAICE SAICE History and Heritage Panel alastair@geoid.co.za Water for a Thirsty Land – the Story of the Orange River Project Some 18 months in the making, SAICE’s History and Heritage Panel is set to publish a coffee table book in 2022 titled Water for a Thirsty Land – the Story of the Orange River Project . Water for a Thirsty Land – the Story of the Orange River Project will be published in 2022