Across the agricultural and commercial sectors – particularly where water supply can be unreliable or interrupted – the Damsak bladder reservoir by liquid storage manufacturer Damsak Reservoirs is designed for and offers  “rapid deployment and ease of use”.

Damsak director Dawid Bredenkamp explains, “a Damsak is a closed reservoir where the traditional solutions are open water storage with no, or poor contamination prevention. A Damsak is completely sealed off, except for a small breather and overflow.”

Manufactured from polyester-reinforced polyvinyl chloride, the Damsak is both strong and durable in addition to being resistant to UV and chemical degradation.

Its corner design, achieved using specialised jigs, contributes to its extended lifespan and functional reliability.

Bredenkamp adds that, while traditional water tanks in the market have a limited storage space of about 20 000 ℓ, their size makes them difficult to transport.

However, the Damsak bladder reservoirs extend up to 500 000 ℓ in size, while still being able to be transported on the “back of a small bakkie”.

This flexibility means that these bladder reservoirs can be delivered and operational in a matter of hours – an advantage for time-sensitive farming operations.

Unlike traditional large-scale irrigation storage systems that take time to install and require significant infrastructure, Damsak’s bladder reservoirs can be deployed “almost instantly”, if the ground is already level.

The primary purpose of a Damsak reservoir, Bredenkamp explains, is to ensure water availability throughout supply interruptions, which are all too common as a result of failing utility systems or borehole breakdowns.

“The Damsak should ideally be completely filled before an outage. During the outage, the water from the Damsak can be used. After the outage the interrupted or slow water supply can be gathered in the Damsak to be used for irrigation,” he notes.

These reservoirs can also be integrated seamlessly into existing irrigation systems, with Bredenkamp noting that a Damsak can be connected in parallel with existing reservoirs.

He points out that it is “similar to a ‘plug and play’ system”, if done in a way that ensures that both the top of the Damsak and the top of the existing reservoir are level. Additionally, downtime is minimal, as such a system only requires the “time it takes to install an additional valve into the existing water system”.

Moreover, a Damsak is cheaper than irrigating crops using a traditional dam or water utility-based system, because “storing water will always be cheaper than having water delivered”, says Bredenkamp.

Beyond this practicality, the Damsak helps to prevent a loss of production that could result from missing a watering session, which could, in turn, stress or ultimately kill crops.

“Any farmer that can afford it should always have enough backup water storage for the worst-case scenario, like a source that stops delivering right before a long weekend,” concludes Bredenkamp.