The water flowing into the Orange River from the Fish River in Namibia (near the river mouth) could theoretically be used to support some of the downstream demands, particularly the environmental demands at the river mouth. To date, however, the contributions from the Fish River (in Namibia) cannot be utilised to support any downstream demands since these demands are currently supplied with water from Vanderkloof Dam which must be released well in advance since the water takes 2 to 6 weeks to reach the mouth (some 1 400 km away). Any water flowing into the Orange River from the Namibian Fish River will therefore add to the water already released from Vanderkloof Dam since it is currently not possible to stop or store the additional water once it has been released.