By Bronwyn Adams, a resident and business person in the Vaal Dam Area:

What’s the opposite of a “triple whammy”? Well, this was it! A Spring festival with a ‘surfeit of ships’ celebrating 100 years of the completion of the Vaal River Reservoir – and the launch of the construction of its extension, the Vaal Dam; and sailing championships at the center of the Vaal Triangle, the Vaal Dam itself with villages of Deneysville, Oranjeville and Vaal Marina validating the fresh, clear, uncontaminated lifeblood of Gauteng: Water; wall-2-wall!

Thousands of people and hundreds of boats of all shapes and sizes transformed the waterway into a kaleidoscope of colours. Vessels navigated the Vaal during September and October, with further water parties planned throughout the spring season including; Stilbaai’s Gauteng Provincial Nationals (the first weekend of Spring and the October Fest upstream at Riverview); followed by reportedly a successful Keelboat Weekend at the Dam; and sporadic October Fests at yacht clubs, including one this weekend, sailing the Stilbaai brand again on the Gauteng shores of North Bay, (one of dozens of bays along the dam’s, endless ‘seaboard’).

The collaboration of residents; businesses; clubs and government departments (of Water Affairs and Sanitation, DWS, and Rand Water, together with municipalities, specifically Midvaal and with buy-in recently by Metsimaholo, Sasolburg), was a first in many ways. And it saw a significant battle won, thus far, in the Vaal Barrage Reservoir’s ongoing fight against the scourge of the invasive water lettuce weed!

The undertaking made by Metsimaholo Local Municipality, (Sasolburg, specifically Deneysville and Oranjeville), to throw its full support behind the initiatives of the community and businesses at the Dam, to “turn around” those two villages specifically, in order to encourage tourism there (and to UJ Island) was a massive collaboration (not unlike the Vaal River Community’s successful collaboration between the public and private sectors which saw into its recent turn-around). .

In Deneysville the Municipality used the opportunity to launch a “Legacy” program, guided by DESTEA (and funded by Metsimaholo), to this end.

Holding them accountable to their undertaking is key to the restoration of Deneysville (or propelling it towards, what they have dubbed; “a ‘to’, not ‘through’ destination”).

There have been reports about cholera being present in the Vaal River, specifically with the DWS cautioning water users earlier this month along the Vaal and Harts rivers in North West and Northern Cape. However, there has been no more recent information from Johannesburg Water or the National Institute for Communicable Diseases about a cholera outbreak in at the Vaal Barrage.

So, the focus specifically between the two dam walls highlighted three commonalities: the revival of the Vaal Barrage Reservoir, acknowledging the efforts of the vast, Vaal Dam (upstream) in assisting in restoring its water quality (and that bound for Gauteng metros); bringing the waterway closer to all South Africans and businesses based in Deneysville on Terrafirma using the motto “denizens join the deep”; and plotting annual festivals to mark the countdown to the Centenary of the completion of the Vaal River causeway.