Vaal River City – Hydrometropolis

The Vaal Riverway with its diverse ecosystems, massive water resources, major infrastructure, the 60 km of navigable waterway running through the city center, and 800km coastline of the Vaal Dam, is the defining and enduring feature and iconic Gateway to the Greater Vaal River region – connecting its people, places, cultures and economies in 4 Provinces, across 4 District Municipalities, 9 Local Municipalities – constituting the iconic, single most enduring Vaal Riverway tourism product.​

Vaal Riverway Development Agency has developed an innovative bespoke programme towards contributing to the transformation and building of the region into a sustainable water smart city complex with a ‘visual and economic orientation towards the river’, introducing the sustainable Riverway Blue Economy to diversify and grow the regional economy, ensuring an inclusive society and public access, uplifting the quality of life of the residents and protecting the natural ecosystems. ​

The proposition is to position the Hydrometropolis  of the Vaal River City as the region which inspires the country’s best water based (Hydropolis) city architectural styles and technical solutions, offers the best water living, learning, working and playing conditions, encourages the most competitive water smart innovation businesses and enterprises, as well as develop the region into a sustainable globally competitive Hydro Hub with the best water knowledge capital in education, skills, research and development. ​

The key challenges facing the programme is to protect the Vaal Riverway environment and ecosystem, especially the impact of the waste water on the waterways, water quality and security, community livelihoods, well being and welfare, in collaboration with the Coalition for Action in Sustainable Development.​