Karoo Life, Science Writing
The Orange-Fish Tunnel
Jun
By Julienne du Toit
Photographs by Chris Marais
One of the Karoo’s most obscure tourism attractions is 150 metres underground, smells faintly of fish and is open to the pubilc for only a few weeks a year.
Here, under a distinctive flat-topped hill called Teebus between the small Eastern Cape towns of Steynsburg and Hofmeyr, is the outlet end of the world’s third-longest continuous aqueduct, the Orange-Fish Tunnel.
With its dark underground passageways and a large valve chamber hewn from solid ironstone, it looks a little like an underground film set for one of those old James Bond movies. The ones full of weird machinery and busy men trotting around in overalls, overseen by an evil man stroking a large kitty.
Opened in 1976, the Orange-Fish Tunnel remains one of South Africa’s most outstanding engineering feats, critical for millions of people in the Eastern Cape.
For more than 11 months of the year, an average of 22 cubic metres of water per second from the Gariep Dam thunder through this 82.45km underwater aqueduct under the Suurberg Mountains, supplying the towns of Cradock, Cookhouse, Somerset East, Kirkwood, Steynsburg, Addo, Adelaide, Bedford and the cities of Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth.
The water irrigates crops and dairies in the fertile Eastern Cape Karoo Midlands as well as the multi-million-rand Sundays River Citrus orchards around Addo and Kirkwood.
The Orange-Fish Tunnel becomes a fleeting tourism attraction in midwinter, when the massive cloverleaf intake roller-valves at Gariep Dam are closed. The constant roar of the water quiets to a trickle while a maintenance team from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) comes in.
Dressed in overalls, gumboots and head torches, they splash through this odd world, with the occasional dead or live fish or crab brushing past their ankles in the deeper tunnels as they caulk tunnel linings, fix holes and replace the worn linings of the pepperpot valves specially designed to control the flow of the water.
During these few weeks, visitors (usually curious irrigation farmers and friends) are allowed to see this exceptional place from the inside, as long as there is someone available to guide them around.
A Long Time Coming
According to the Water Research Commission’s Water Wheel editor Lani van Vuuren, the Orange River Project (building and linking the Gariep Dam and the Orange-Fish Tunnel) happened in part because of the international shockwaves caused by the Apartheid government’s shooting of 69 Pass Law protesters at Sharpeville in 1960. The then government “needed to restore confidence in the country’s economy”.
It wasn’t a new idea though. Back in 1912, Dr Alfred Lewis, who was to become Director of Irrigation, went on a gruelling trip down the Orange River in 41 deg C heat and later wrote a detailed report about the potential of diverting part of the river’s water through a series of tunnels to the Great Fish and Sundays Rivers.
He and many others recognised how it would unlock the potential of the drought-plagued Eastern Cape Karoo, where the soils were fertile, but the rainfall was sparse and the rivers ephemeral.
The Orange River Project was proposed to the government in 1948 but it was dismissed as too expensive.
In the end, it was international pressure and the threatened outflow of foreign capital in 1960 that provided the trigger and R490 million was found to fund the Orange River Project (about R75 billion in today’s money, estimated one water engineer).
The first step, of course, was the building of the dam to tame the mighty Orange. Construction on the new dam, the largest in the country, began in 1965, and was completed in 1971. Initially called the Ruigte Valley Dam, it was later named after Hendrik Verwoerd, and then renamed the Gariep Dam in 1996, using the original Khoi name for the river.
Europe in the Desert
Planning for the Orange-Fish Tunnel part of the project began in 1963, including aerial photography, geological mapping and the drilling of nearly 300 exploratory boreholes.
Entire work camps – essentially full towns – had to be created from scratch. At its peak, the building of the tunnel would involve a workforce of 5 000 locals and foreigners from all over the world – including junior and senior engineers from Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Belgium.
The tunnel construction was considered too huge a project to entrust to one civil engineering contractor to handle, and was split into three.
A French company worked on the inlet section (the town became known as Oviston – a shortening of Oranje-Vis-Tonnel). A South African company handled the middle section (based at a work town called Midshaft), and an Italian company took on the outlet at a town called Teebus, named after the nearby mountain shaped like an old-fashioned tea cannister.
Everything was of the highest standard, with no expense spared. The commemoration book on the Orange-Fish Tunnel published in 1975 notes the townships were “almost entirely self-contained, with their own electric lighting, sewerage, roads, medical clinics, primary schools, administrative staff and artisans’ quarters, all recreational and sporting facilities (including swimming baths, all-weather floodlit tennis courts, football fields etc), housing…, site offices, assembly halls, shopping centres, banks and other appropriate amenities”.
Fire and Mudstone
It also records that the building of new roads “opened up a part of South Africa never seen before by more than a bare handful of farmers on the Suurberg Plateau”.
Department of Water Affairs resident engineer WJR Alexander remarked at the time that this tunnel was “50 miles of risks and unknowns.” He was right. The work was dangerous and had to be remarkably precise.
All the way there were rockfalls of mudstone and sandstone, explosions and floods of groundwater as they drilled through iron-hard dolerite. One methane-fuelled fire burnt for months, and was so hot it melted the rocks.
To this day, no petrol vehicles are allowed into the tunnel. Diesel bakkies are less risky in terms of creating potentially deadly sparks.
No fewer than 102 people died in the building of the tunnel. The Orange-Fish Tunnel commemorative document (1975) reads: “Some who died were from distant lands; the tunnel is their enduring monument.”
Movies at Midshaft
Local farmers still remember the thrill of all these exotic foreigners moving into their midst in the late 1960s. Suddenly there were movie houses, drive-ins, Olympic-sized swimming pools and social clubs springing up. There were musical evenings.
At one stage, more Italian was heard around Venterstad than English or Afrikaans.
Dave van Heerden, now living on Johannesburg’s West Rand, was a young boy when his father started work at Midshaft.
“I still remember the movie house and the shop, like a mini-Makro. There were 150 kids at school with me, all between Grade 1 and Std 5. The weather was extreme. I’ve still got a slide picture my dad took of me in the snow – on 16 December 1970!”
“It also made a big impression on me when they brought in this enormous tunnelling machine from France that cost many millions of rands. It used to move forward on funny little peg legs. I’m pretty sure they ended up leaving it underground in a tunnel somewhere.”
Laser Sharp Engineering
The Orange-Fish Tunnel is so long that engineering calculations had to take the curvature of the Earth into account. Along the length of the tunnel, scientists from the Geological Survey of South Africa noted anomalies in the gravity field, so adjustments had to be made in surveying techniques to minimise ‘levelling errors’.
Engineers used lasers – then a really cutting-edge technology – to keep the tunnel in line as the miners dug through solid rock.
The calculations were so accurate that when the tunnelling teams broke through and met one another, they were less than 4mm out of alignment.
The first water from the Gariep flowed through in 1976.
Farmer Charles Jordaan still remembers the day the tunnel was opened. Everyone stood waiting to see the water. When it came, tons of dammed up fish also came through.
“We caught them in netting and loaded them by the bakkie load. Everyone feasted on carp and barbel.”
Teebus Remains
The town of Oviston still survives, a quiet place of holidaymakers and retirees who have adapted the old engineering camp’s prefab houses with views over the Gariep Dam.
But the engineering towns of Teebus and Midshaft have long been abandoned, fallen into ruin. At Teebus, where the Italian tunnelers lived and worked, guarri bushes are slowly taking over the brick and stonework of the recreation centre.
The massive space of the swimming pool is still there, presided over by a tall diving board. Some of the pines, poplars and beefwood trees live on.
A rusted sign admonishes the passing lizards and red-winged starlings that ‘Swemdrag moet ordentlik wees’ (Swimwear must be decent).
There are no real tours, but the Department of Water Affairs does allow small groups to visit when convenient in their work schedules. To make an arrangement, contact the Gariep Scheme Manager in May. And if you go, remember to take gumboots, a strong torch, spare clothes just in case and a camera (with a powerful flash) of course. And owing to the methane levels, matches and cigarette lighters are strictly banned from the premises. No petrol vehicles are allowed underground for the same reason.
More Interesting Facts
- Nearly 2.5 million cubic metres of rock were removed from the tunnel excavation, enough to build two Empire State buildings.
- Every week 14 000 tons of bulk cement was brought in, first via 40-ton rail tankers to three small railway stations around the tunnel, and then trucked by road.
- The tunnel diameter is 5.33 metres, roughly as wide as a train tunnel.
- Lining the tunnels evenly took 842 000 cubic metres of concrete.
Spectacular, that’s all I can say. I have been to the dam but never realized where the water is going to from there.
Fabulous story and pix. I love this type of story, it actually makes me feel quite thrilled and itching to check it out.
My grandfather Dr Tom Bowker MP for Albany who died in 1964 was instrumental in pushing for this project to go ahead in Parliament. I have copies of sections of his speeches recorded in Hansards.
Dear Marion
I knew many years ago about your grandfather and my cousin Geoff Hobson in Bedford tried to get some details about him without success. We are doing a book on the ORP for publication early next year and it would be nice to quote some of your grandfather’s speeches. Any chance of copies.
Regards
Robert Blyth
Thanks for a great story you guys. Mighty interesting. I’ve got to get there next year.
Great story. But how come PE and Grahamstown still suffer crippling water shortages?
The Fish River supplies only part of their needs, supplementing water from other dams that should be providing the bulk of their supply. The crippling water shortages are caused by this grinding drought in the rest of their dams’ catchment areas.
The water only reaches a part of Port Elizabeth. Excellent engineers have put decent plans at a reasonable price together to connect it through, but the pot plants that are running the council at the moment are blocking it because they can.
What an amazing and lucidly-written story. ‘…overseen by an evil man stroking a large kitty.’ So informative yet delivered with such a deft touch. Thanks!
The Italian firm (Di Penta) worked in building shaft 6, 7 and Teebus outlet.
It didn’t work in Oviston.
I know that because my Italian family and I lived in Teebus in 1969-70.
It was great to live in Teebus, unforgettable.
After 40 years I’ve been back to see the remains of the old village.
Very interesting article.
My family also stayed in Teebus during the construction. The Cuttitta twins(Marcello and Massimo) who later went on and played rugby for Italy also stayed in Teebus.
Great article! Informative and well written. I spent my forming years at Oviston. I was born in 1971 when my father, Jan van Eeden worked on this project. He was so proud of it, and with reason.
Hi Anne – I think that I worked with your father Janie van Eeden at the Oviston concrete laboratories – I was his boss!
Please pass on my best regards
Paul Davies
Hi Julienne, Is there a map showing the route of the tunnel?
There is… Will hunt it down.
Hi Jeremy
https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/bldgframes.php?bldgid=11465 has a map and a profile of the ground through which the tunnel passes.
Regards
I worked at teebus fish tonnel.i was 24,I was a diesel mecanic,from italy,now I live in centurion gauteng,
Fabulous uplifting article – THANK YOU! Until a few weeks ago tens of millions of liters of Orange River water from the Grassridge Dam destined for Nelson Mandela Bay spewed out weekly over the veld, a torrent 150 meters wide, several meters deep, and 6 km long going to waste near Addo because the Department of Water is so useless and NMB head of infrastructure and engineering Mr Andile Lungisa claimed they knew nothing about it despite having been told about it umpteen times – but due to the publicity in PE newspapers by Addo farmers and local residents this has hopefully now been fixed. See article in the Herald Tuesday 9 June page 4 “Deluge of clean water lost as reservoir overflows.”
I’ve known about the tunnel for many years but was prompted to look up what the state of it is as there is so much discussion about the drought in parts of the Eastern Cape that I feared that the tunnel had fallen into disrepair – is it actually still working well and as was anticipated?
Great article beautifully written – well done.
It is in perfect nick, thank goodness. So many lives and livelihoods depend on it, including the massive citrus farms around Kirkwood and Addo.
Good afternoon
I worked on the Orange Fish Tunnel as an Engineer for OFTCo (the Consulting Engineers) at Shaft 3, living at Midshaft from 1970-1973. I then worked as a Materials Engineer at the Oviston Laboratories for OFTCo from 1973-1976.
The article is slightly incorrect w.r.t. the nationalities of the contractors:
*** The Inlet Section (based at Oviston and comprising the Inlet works, and the shafts and tunnel from the Inlet to beyond Shaft 2 was BCA (Batignolles [French], Cogefar [Italian] and African Batignolles [French/South African]).
*** The Mid Section (based at Midshaft and comprising the shafts and tunnel from between shafts 2 and 3 to between shafts 5 and 6) was ORCO (Orange River Consortium – a South African company comprising elements of LTA and Anglo-American).
*** The Outlet section (based at Teebus and comprising the Outlet Works, Power Station, Shafts and Tunnel from between Shafts 5 and 6 to the outlet works) was an Italian Company whose name I have forgotten!
My memory has returned! – The Outlet section contractor was JDP – a consortium of JCI (Johannesburg Consolidated Industries pty – South Africa) and di Penta (an Italian specialist tunneling company)
Thank you Paul! I’ve changed the text to reflect the nationalities of the countries involved.
Julienne – here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry about (the now defunct) company Dipenta Construzioni – founded 1956 and absorbed into Aspaldi S.P.a in 1999.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipenta_Costruzioni
Paul – the contractor at Teebus was DiPenta, the consultants were Sir William Halcrow and Partners. My husband worked for them and we lived there from 1971-1974. My daughter was born in the local hospital in Steynsburg. I have very fond memories of our life there.
Hi Jane – I recall your husband Mike and I am reminded of some other Halcrow people who worked there – Alan Brown from Hull (who married Helena from Steynsburg), Bill and Loretta Roberts and their children – and the Resident Engineer there Peter Hojem from Keeve Steyn and Partners. Hope you are all keeping safe and well. We’ve been back in the UK since 1982 (via Pretoria, Malawi and Libya!)
Hi Paul – You must have known Rab Brown? He passed away in Dubai on 11 March from Covid. So sad. Lost touch with Helena Brown but stall in touch with Loretta and Bill. Also see Jon and Trish Wood occasionally. Which of the three sites were you on. Mike doesn’t remember. We spent most of Mike’s working life travelling the world, Dubai, Guyana- South America, Libya, Borneo, Saudi, Panama, Iran. Now based in Swindon. We are all well and safe but getting fed up with the lock down. Looking at these amazing images of the Karoo makes me wish I was back there. We had a great time.
Hi again Jane (and Mike) – we were at Midshaft from Nov 1970 to May 1973 and then a 2nd contract from Jul 1973 to Feb 1975 at the Materials Laboratory at Oviston. I then left Halcrows and joined Roberts Construction in the Transvaal where we lived until mid 1977 when I was transferred to Malawi. Left there in Aug 1981 and moved back to the UK and worked with various IT related organisations before ending up working with renewable energy at E.ON UK. We live in Hertfordshire and are all very safe and well, albeit a bit pee’d off with lockdown etc. My email is paul@furlongware.co.uk . . . PS: I do recall Rab Brown, and am sorry to hear of his demise.
Hi Jane – I recall your husband Mike and I am reminded of some other Halcrow people who worked there – Alan Brown from Hull (who married Helena from Steynsburg), Bill and Loretta Roberts and their children – and the Resident Engineer there Peter Hojem from Keeve Steyn and Partners.
W.r.t the contractor at Teebus I finally remembered that it was JDP – a consortium of DiPenta from Italy and JCI (Johannesburg Consolidated Industries)
Hope you are all keeping safe and well. We’ve been back in the UK since 1982 (via Pretoria, Malawi and Libya!)
n Goeie storie en n ware suksesverhaal in eie reg en n lewensaar vir baie dorpe en boerdey gemeenskappe al langs die Visrivier. Ek weet eerlik net nie waarom Sharpeville deur die redakteur van die waterwiel Lani van Vuuten van die Water Navorsings Raad hierby ingesleep word nie want hierdie projek spreek van versiendheid en was al lank reeds vooruit beplan, gee die eer waar dit toekom.
When I studied at UCT (30 years ago), my mentor, Professor Bob Williams, took the gyro-observations when the tunnel was built.
I studied at UCT under Professor Bob Williams, who took the gyro observations in the tunnel while it was being built.
Hi Jane – I recall your husband Mike and I am reminded of some other Halcrow people who worked there – Alan Brown from Hull (who married Helena from Steynsburg), Bill and Loretta Roberts and their children – and the Resident Engineer there Peter Hojem from Keeve Steyn and Partners. Hope you are all keeping safe and well. We’ve been back in the UK since 1982 (via Pretoria, Malawi and Libya!)
I have discovered this blog by chance.
It is a great pleasure to me to hear from people who spent part of their life
in lonely places like Teebus as I did.
I was an engineer of DiPenta Company that was engaged in tunnelling the
Outlet section of Orange-Fish Tunnel.
I stayed in Teebus township from mid 1973 up to the very end of the works
(mid 1976).
I remember quite well O.F.T.Co.’s Resident Engineers of Outlet Section first
Mr Hojem then Mr J.P. Wood and Mr J. Micklethwaite; Mr R.Smith, Mr M.A.T.
Lee and Mr Goodman were also part of O.F.T.Co.’s team in Teebus and
Johannesburg. Many years have passed since then but I remember vividly
and pleasantly the time spent in Teebus and the time spent in visiting the
enchanted South African country-side.
Names like Oviston, Midshaft, Steynsburg, Middelburg, Hofmeyr, Cradock,
Aliwal North are very familiar with me. They remind to me youth unfortunately passed.
Best regards and greetings from Italy
Lovely blog! I recall a story of the Gariep Dam. The Orange has a huge variance between minimum and maximum flow rates. The European contractors – I do not remember if they were Italian or French – were very scathing in their remarks about the enormous dam and the little river they had to dam. That was until it had rained in Lesotho and they had to replace all the earth moving equipment that were washed away.
Thanks very much for the article.
I’m just a South African, proud of all those that made this project possible.
Happy for all in the Eastern Cape benefiting from this engineering marvel.
Great read
Would be great to visit.
Pietie Loubser
Vredenburg
Wow!!! Wat ‘n ongeloolike insetsel. Gek daaroor. SA ‘Marvel”.🙏🏻
I was about 10 years old when my father showed us the dam and tunnel inlet in the early 70’s when it was still being constructed. I have wondered about the tunnel and the route until I came across this blog. Thanks to all the people who shared, it is awesome information.
My father worked at Midshaft on the section of the tunnel. I was at university at the time and was fortunate to go underground with him on a few occasions during varsity holidays. To today I am still impressed with the achievement of all the people who worked on this engineering marvel. I would like to undertake one of the tunnel tours during 2022.
Hi Johan – was your father Hendryk van Heerden, a strong tall man with a moustache? If so we worked together for OFTCo at Midshaft. He helped lift out and later replace the engine I my Vauxhall Viva that I molded. Kindest regards etc
Morning Paul, my father was Hannes van Heerden, he was strong but of medium build and did not have a moustache. His brother, Danie van Heerden, who also worked there was tall and had a moustache. Could be him? Regards
Morning Johan – I have a photo of the breakthrough between Shafts 3 and 2 (I believe that was the first breakthrough on the Midshaft based ORCO section of the tunnel which includes a photo of the gent I’m thinking about. Please do bear in mind that it was 50 years ago, I’m 50 years older and my memory is not as sharp as it used to be! I’ll scan the photo and mail it to you . . . Rgds Paul Davies
Paul thank you for generously sharing all your memories about this great engineering feat. My father worked on the outlet tunnel until about 1973, Do you remember Gordon Archer?
Can anybody give me contact information to arrange a tunnel tour. I have searched the internet to no avail. Thanks
Apparently the right person to speak to is Stephen van der Westhuizen at the Bloemfontein offices of Department Water and Sanitation. The number is 051 405 9000.
Thanks Julienne, I will contact him. Any idea when this year’s shutdown will occur?
Hi Johan. It is for the month of June.
Morning Johan – I have a photo of the breakthrough between Shafts 3 and 2 (I believe that was the first breakthrough on the Midshaft based ORCO section of the tunnel which includes a photo of the gent I’m thinking about. Please do bear in mind that it was 50 years ago, I’m 50 years older and my memory is not as sharp as it used to be! I’ll scan the photo and mail it to you . . . Rgds Paul Davies
Thank you Paul, looking forward to the photo’s. You can mail them direct to ijb@mweb.co.za.
Great memories. I’m from NewZealand & managed underground equipment maintenance on the central section & lived in Midshaft township
Hi Warren,
I was 4 yrs old when we moved back up to Johannesburg from Midshaft. I only remember how the water froze in the pipes during winter.
I was the youngest of 5, so my siblings have way more memories than I do.
Do you know if there are any photos from those days of the houses and folk living there.
My Father was Ted (Edward) Dicks
Regards,
Lynnete
Thank you for an WONDERFUL article . My late father , Leslie Dale Hobbs , was the RE at the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam , as it was then called . Our first home there was a prefab on the banks of the Orange River ,whilst the kofferdams were being built . As a child ,I spent hours clambering and scrambling amongst the rocks searching for diamonds and all I found was a hippo tooth . I could write a book , as they say and the title would be a DAM GOOD LIFE 😁
Oranjekrag was the name of the township established in the ensuing years . I spent one year of my schooling at the local school , Grade 3 , before relocating to Eunice in Bloemfontein .Many thanks again for a most stimulating read and a delightful trip down memory lane .