A new high-altitude weather station has been installed in the northern Drakensberg, offering unprecedented real-time monitoring of one of South Africa’s most vital water source regions – the headwaters of the Tugela and Elands rivers.
Perched more than 3 100 metres above sea level on Mont-aux-Sources, the station is now the highest in southern Africa.
It forms part of a collaboration between the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) and the University of the Free State.
Major milestone
Biochemist Kathleen Smart said the installation marks a major milestone in protecting the country’s most important and vulnerable strategic water source areas.
“This is a strategic addition to a growing environmental observation network in one of South Africa’s most important and most vulnerable strategic water source areas,” Smart said.
Although strategic water source areas make up just 8% of South Africa’s land surface, they provide 50% of the country’s river and dam water. The northern Drakensberg is among the most crucial of these.
“The region alone feeds the Vaal, Orange, Caledon, and Tugela systems,” Smart explained.
“It supplies water to four provinces, including up to 30% of Gauteng’s demand.”
Real-time data
The new station sits on the Drakensberg Amphitheatre, transmitting real-time climate and weather data from a landscape that sustains millions of South Africans. It is the first time researchers and local communities will be able to monitor environmental changes in this area as they happen – including shifts driven by climate change and extreme weather events.
Smart emphasised the project’s accessibility and community value.
“Information will be openly available to researchers, land managers, hikers, tourism operators, and anybody interested in the dynamics of this remarkable landscape,” she said.
“Importantly, this installation aligns with the work of the Growing Community Forum.”
The weather station also supports a catchment-to-coast monitoring approach, linking data from the upper Tugela region to the Illa estuary, where coastal scientists study marine and estuarine health.
Smart said the broader initiative is designed to protect the water, land, and people of the northern Drakensberg, while encouraging schools, communities, and citizens to interact with the data and help strengthen climate resilience.
