THE MINISTRY of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform has rejected as misleading a video circulating on social media and suggesting there is a hole or crack in the Neckartal Dam's wall.

The ministry's spokesperson, Jona Musheko, in a statement on Thursday said the ministry took issue with the video since it paints a picture that the work on the recently built dam wall was defective.

He explained the dam wall has two tunnels called drainage galleries.

"In the galleries there are drainage holes drilled to some depth into the foundation of the dam wall to relieve its pressure by releasing accumulating water and channelling it into the galleries," he clarified.

Musheko said each gallery has two drainage sumps collecting water and draining it out through an outlet pipe onto the steps downstream of the dam wall as seen in the images circulating.

The dam wall also has drainage holes on its upstream side at each induced joint collecting water seeping through and channelling it via the gallery, he added.

Mishelo said the "insinuation" that the holes would eventually cause damage to the dam was misleading and devoid of any truth.

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