Bloemhof Dam

Bloemhof Dam is a dam in South Africa. It was originally known as the Oppermansdrif Dam when under construction during the late 1960s. It is located at the confluence of the Vaal River and the Vet River, on the border between the North West, and Free State, provinces of . The dam wall is very long with a total length of 4 270 m. The reservoir is very shallow, and therefore needs a large area to mean anything for water storage. The area around the reservoir (dam), has been a protected area, but because it lies on the border between provinces, these became two separate nature reserves. On the North West Province side lies the Bloemhof Dam Nature Reserve, on the Free State side is the Sandveld Nature Reserve.

The town named Bloemhof lies on the North West side of the Vaal River.

The dam was commissioned in 1970, has a capacity of 1,269,000,000 cubic metres (4.48×10¹⁰ cu ft), and an area of 223 square kilometres (86 sq mi), the wall is 33 metres (108 ft) high. It is fed with the outflow from the Vaal dam (located upstream near Heidelberg) as well as rain collected in the Vaal-, Vet-, Vals- and Sandriver catchment areas.

Bloemhof

Bloemhof is an agricultural town of about 28,000 inhabitants situated on the banks of the Vaal River in North West Province of South Africa.

It was founded in 1864 when diamonds were discovered in the area. The town was established on the farm owned by John Barclay, who survived the HMS Birkenhead shipwreck in 1852. The place became known as Bloemhof (flower court) because of the lovely gardens that were planted by Barclay's daughter. Currently Bloemhof has a variety of social milieus; it has a township called Boitumelong and former coloured residence called Coverdale. Salamad is also a small residence formerly an Indian suburb which is situated in this town.

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