The !Khukaǁgamma or Sundaysriver ( af, Sondagsrivier) is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in the

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 1994 ...

of South Africa. It is said to be the fastest flowing river in the country. The Inqua Khoi people, who historically were the wealthiest group in Southern Africa, originally named this river ''!Khukaǁgamma'' (the waters with the spirit of abundance) because the river's banks are always green and grassy despite the arid terrain that it runs through. Presently this river is part of the Fish to Tsitsikamma Water Management Area.

Course

The source of the long Sundays River is in the

Sneeuberge The Sneeuberge or Sneeuberg mountain range was historically known as “Sneeuwbergen”, meaning ‘snow mountains’ in Cape Dutch, and refers to a significant portion of Southern Africa's Great Escarpment in the Cradock, Murraysburg, Richmon ...

(the highest mountain range in the former

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

) near

Nieu-Bethesda Nieu-Bethesda (Afrikaans for ''New Bethesda'') is a village in the Eastern Cape at the foot of the Sneeuberge, approximately north of Graaff Reinet. It was founded in 1875 as a church town, like many other Karoo villages, and attained municipa ...

. The river then flows in a general South/Southeasterly direction, passing the town

Graaff-Reinet Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the c ...

in the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

before winding its way through the

Zuurberg Mountains Suurberg cycads in a valley of the Suurberg The Suurberg (also Zuurberg or Suurberge) is a mountain range in the southern Sarah Baartman District Municipality of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The range of some 70 kilometres long (west to east) ...

and then past Kirkwood and Addo in the fertile Sundays River Valley. It empties into the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

Algoa Bay Algoa Bay is a maritime bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is located in the east coast, east of the Cape of Good Hope. Algoa Bay is bounded in the west by Cape Recife and in the east by Cape Padrone. The bay is up to deep. The harbour c ...

after flowing through the village of

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, 40 km east of the city of

Gqeberha Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, So ...

. ;Dams *

Darlington Dam Darlington Dam, also referred to as Lake Mentz. is a gravity type dam situated in the Sundays River, near Kirkwood, in Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was completed in 1922 and only filled by 1928, the delay a result of extensive drought. The ...

Nqweba Dam Nqweba Dam (previously known as Vanryneveld's Pass Dam), is an earth-fill type dam located on the Sundays River, near Graaff Reinet, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was established in 1925. The dam has a capacity of , and a surface area of , ...

Fish-Sundays River Canal Scheme

The Fish River-Sundays River Canal Scheme consists of a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

and

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

system which supplies water from the

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...

to the Great Fish River Valley and subsequently to the Sundays River Valley in order to supplement the existing water supply of the Eastern Cape. Since 1992 the water from the Sundays River Valley has been supplied to Gqeberha.Department of Water - Fish-Sundays
/ref>

References

Rivers of the Eastern Cape {{SouthAfrica-river-stub

Course

Fish-Sundays River Canal Scheme

See also

References