The Berg River dam in Franschoek, built to stave off an increasing water shortage in the expanding City of Cape Town, has intricate water-release requirements in terms of the new National Water Act and in accordance with the World Commission on Dams (WCD).

According to South Africa’s former Minister of Water Affairs, Professor Kadar Asmal, who convened the United Nations commission, dams have made an important and significant contribution to human development in the past, and benefits derived from them have been considerable, but in too many cases an unacceptable and often unnecessary price has been paid, especially in social and environmental terms, by people displaced, by communities downstream, by taxpayers, and by the natural environment.

According to Dr Nick King, director of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, freshwater is humanity’s most limiting resource, and the United Nations estimates that in less than 20 years, by the year 2025, as much as two thirds of the world’s population will be living in conditions of severe water shortage and one third will be living in conditions of absolute water scarcity.