Vaalharts Weir | 19 April 2025
Today… I stood before the mighty Vaal.
And for the first time in weeks — it was quiet.
Still.
Breathing.
Behind me stood concrete — weathered, stained, and unshaken since 1935.
Before me… the remnants of a roaring race.
Did you know?
The Vaalharts Weir, part of one of the largest irrigation schemes in the Southern Hemisphere, was engineered to handle 14,200 cubic meters of flood water per second. RAW FORCE!.
And yet today…
I witnessed the quiet rise of just one of its three fish belly plates.
They call it a “vismaag plaat” here — and rightly so. It’s a massive steel slab designed to brake water flow with sheer force, like a giant hand calming a furious stallion after the final stretch. 
That’s exactly what it felt like:
A brutal, raging race run through valleys and banks… now slowed… reined in.
Within just 10 minutes, this colossal plate rose — throttling back the flood.
And suddenly…
Silence.
Behind the gate, only flapping chaos remained — hundreds of fish left behind, exposed on damp riverbed like nature’s quiet offering to the locals who now bent over with buckets and hands, harvesting tonight’s supper.
I stood there with gooseflesh on my arms and a lump in my throat.
Not just at the sight of the mighty river finally tamed…
But because I could see the flood’s path — carved into the brown water-stain on the old weir wall. A reminder. A signature.
It came.
It passed.
And it left its mark.
Always does.
And then, as if the river had taken a deep, calming exhale…
Just four hours later, on the same Vaal’s shoulder, a small group gathered.
Clad in white.
Dipping into the now-peaceful waters — baptising.
From chaos to calm.
From destruction to life.
River of Hope. River of Rebirth.
I don’t push beliefs — everyone walks their own path.
But let me tell you:
Today, I was simply grateful to be alive.
To see it.
To feel small in the presence of genius — of engineers from 90 years ago who built this weir…
…and even smaller in the face of the ancient river it was built to tame.
I left that site with silent respect.
For man.
For nature.
And for the invisible line where the two meet.
Vaalharts Weir Facts
Built: 1934–1935
Capacity: 14,200 m³/s
Fish Belly Plates: 3
Purpose: To divert flow from the Vaal into the Vaalharts irrigation canals — feeding one of SA’s greatest agricultural lifelines.
Today I didn’t just see the Vaal.
I felt her.
And just by the way — the whole damn structure? Still standing. Still operating. Still managing floodwaters like it’s 1935 and it’s got something to prove. No rusted bolts, no smoke signals, no panic meetings under a tree. Just calm, calculated engineering brilliance doing what it was designed to do. So for the old tannies screaming “poor management!” from the safety of their WhatsApp groups… maybe just take a sip of your rooibos and breathe. The river’s in better hands than your Facebook feed suggests.
