Die droogte wat die fonteine laat opdroog het, Beaufort-Wes

1856 · regional · Beaufort West

A drought running about three years in which MANY SPRINGS DRIED UP and the town had to combine the supply from those that held. A correspondent of the Government Gazette wrote: "Beaufort West is hard up and business is dead... For a dreary down-on-your-luck retreat try Beaufort West." Water from the surviving springs was pooled to keep irrigation going. These are BEAUFORT WEST's records, about 91 km from the centre of the ground this project maps, and the article makes no statement about Klaarstroom or the Koup farms. What makes them worth having is that they are the same rainfall regime and the nearest place where somebody wrote the weather down year by year. Read as regional context, not as a record of what fell on these farms. [SRC-262]

Bronne

• Wessel Visser, "Between drought and deluge: A history of water provision to Beaufort West, ca. 1858-1955", pp. 1-21 pp. 1-21; supplied as the PDF 31-61-1-SM.pdf