African Wildlife & Environment Issue 78

CONSERVATION

Hand drawing by Thomas Bain showing different dam designs.

Over time this created a sophisticated system of inter-basin transfers, linking almost all rivers of significance to areas of economic growth. The result, in ecological terms, was the systematic destruction of the flood pulse, and the long but steady destruction of almost all aquatic ecosystems. It is this very issue that is currently playing out at the St Lucia estuary, as a battle is waged between the narrow self-interest of agriculture and the tourism industry, versus the broader interest of society. In this battle space, scientists become the target of commercial interest anger, and the vilification of science becomes the strategy of choice. This serves to teach us the lesson about

Bain created several drawings to show how dams ought to be built, in response to the failures of early structures attempted by farmers. These drawings are still available today at the Academic Information Centre at the University of Pretoria, and the principles of design, while somewhat refined in the modern era, are still valid. When applying his mind to the scale of diversion needed to deliver water to Port Elizabeth, Bain noted that the project could be executed in phases, using convict labour. The sheer complexity of this project meant that it remained a concept from 1886, until 1966 when the Commission of Inquiry into Water Matters was mandated by the State President 'Blackie” Swart. This Commission rapidly developed Bain’s original concept, into what became known as the Orange Fish Sundays Inter-Basin Transfer Scheme. The security driver was the need to rapidly develop the economy around Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage as a counter strategy to the Armed Struggle that had recently been launched, with active recruitment of cadres taking place in the Eastern Cape at that time. The intention was to create economic prosperity as a means of dampening revolutionary zeal. The HF Verwoerd Dam (now known as the Gariep Dam) was therefore the genesis of the aggressive phase of the South African Hydraulic Mission. Water resource management was consequently politicised, a fact that now characterises our environmental discourse.

Hand drawing by Thomas Bain signed in 1885 showing how a filter system can be used to clean up the water in a dam and render it suitable for potable use. The filter is designed like a well, forcing water up through layers of charcoal and gravel when water is drawn by bucket.

12 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 78 (2021)