Water from the reservoir is supplied to water treatment works of the City of Cape Town and the West Coast District Municipality, and can also be released into the Berg River for agricultural purposes or to fill the Misverstand Dam.

Because the lake had a limited catchment area, a canal was also constructed to supply water to the reservoir from a weir in the Nuwekloof Pass on the Klein Berg River.

[2] Since 1734 the farm on which Voëlvlei Dam is situated belonged to the Walters family, who were of German descent.

The state paid compensation to the Walters family in the amount of £44,000 and the Vogelvlei Quarries (Pty) Ltd which bought the remainder of Voëlvlei in 1946 for £48,000.

The Walters family did not agree to the expropriation and maintained a long-standing dispute with the then Nationalist government.