WILLOWMORE NEWS - The Beervlei Dam, located along the N9 about 30km outside Willowmore, continues to overflow after it started doing so in the first week of June for the first time in decades.
On Wednesday, 3 June, the dam was already above capacity and spilling over, and by Thursday, 4 June, it was actively overflowing as floodwater continued to enter the system. When the sluices were opened on Friday, 5 June, the dam was reportedly already at about 119% capacity.
A week after the opening of the sluices, Cllr Ewald Loock told the Graaff-Reinet Advertiser that the dam was still significantly overflowing.
"It is still overflowing by about a foot and a half in old terms.
That is about half a metre in modern terms," he said.
This overflow is indeed a rare occurrence, particularly since the Beervlei Dam does not normally contain water and is not intended to do so, as it is neither a balancing dam nor a storage dam. It is a flood-control dam designed to protect the Gamtoos River valley from flooding by receiving excess water from the Groot, Salt and Kariega rivers.
To fulfil its flood-control function, the dam is operated at 0% capacity and, as a result, does not usually remain full for extended periods.
Only two major overflow events - in 1961 and 2000 - were recorded in the dam's history prior to 2026.
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