katse dam, One of the most ambitious engineering projects ever undertaken in South Africa, Katse is the continent's second-largest double-curvature arch dam. Some 710-metres long and 185-metres high, it impounds a deep, squiggly, multi-tendrilled reservoir that extends back more than 30km along the Malibamat'so River when full and has a total surface area of 38.5 square kilometres.
Katse Dam, Lesotho Reputedly named after a wealthy local farmer, Katse was constructed in the early 1990s as the centrepiece of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). Water from Katse is funnelled through an 82km underground tunnel into the Ash River near Clarens, South Africa, from where it flows along a succession of natural waterways into the Vaal Dam, the main reservoir in the industrialised and densely populated South African province of Gauteng.
Visitors coming on the A25 from Maseru will pass the tunnel's intake tower to their left as they cross the reservoir on Mphorosane Bridge near Ha Lejone, some 30km before reaching the dam itself. Also visible from the bridge is a cluster of circular fish farms that produces the trout for which Lesotho is famed.
Informative guided tours of the dam wall and boat trips onto the reservoir can be arranged at the helpful LHWP Visitors' Centre, which stands right above the dam and has an interior designed to mimic it.
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5 сен 2024
