via Kariba dam on verge of collapsing | Radio Dialogue by Sanele Njini March 19, 2014
A hydroelectric dam bordering Zambia and Zimbabwe threatens the lives of 3.5 million people in the southern African region as it is on the verge of collapsing, local newspaper Zambia Daily Mail reported Tuesday.
The wall of Kariba Dam, one of the world’s largest dams measuring 128 meters tall and 579 meters long, has developed weaknesses and may collapse if nothing is done to repair it in the next three years, the report said.
“We are told by engineers that if nothing is done in the next three years, the dam may be swept away,” Felix Nkulukusa, chairperson of an intergovernmental committee mobilizing funds for the repair of the dam, was quoted as saying.
The dam, situated in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi River basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe, needs 250 million U.S. dollars to be repaired and the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Union have so far agreed in principle to fund the repair, he said.
“This is of great concern, as an unstable foundation can wash away the dam, a potential catastrophe event for 3.5 million people along the Zambezi River mainly in Mozambique and Malawi,” he added.
In case of the dam swept away, the Cabora Bassa Hydro power plant in Mozambique will be submerged, which may affect 40 percent of electricity generation in the region, he said.
The dam, which controls 40 percent of the total runoff of the Zambezi River, will also have a pushback effect on Zambezi’s major tributary, the Kafue River, which may result in the submersion of Lusaka Province, where the Zambian capital of Lusaka is located, he said.
Source: Xinhua
COMMENTS
Idzo nhamo dzezimbabwe ndinopera whan one after another mashura ekwani aya hameno mwari ndiye anoziva zvakuda iye musiki tatenda
No, please. Not now with these greedy morons who have destroyed the country. If they can’t deal with Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam (let alone victims of flooding in the same area) what more of Kariba?
If Nyami Nyami wants my vote, this is the time for him to get it!!!!
This administration done absolutely nothing to maintain strategic infrastructures.One wonders if other strategic infrastructures like the Victoria falls bridge are not overdue for refurbishment. That the Kariba Dam wall was facing problems was known ten years ago. Any Engineer worth his salt will tell you that unlike a mountain these structures have a service life. If this wall collapses it will be so catastrophic and the this will be the worst disaster that Zimbabwe and Zambia have ever seen. It is a known fact that some of the earth tremors Zimbabwe and Zambia have experienced are earth movements caused by the capacity of water this lake holds. The impact it will have on human and wildlife will be enormous. If anybody is saying in the next three years they are wrong. This is well overdue and the Government needs to act now to avoid a National disaster. The Victoria falls Bridge has been assisted by low volumes of rail traffic. Not so with Kariba. The same volume of water if not more flows down the Zambezi day in and day out.
@Dr do little……the earth tremors are caused by the capacity of water the lake/dam holds??? Really???….. And this is a known fact???……perhaps only to u and your drinking buddies……I think too many zimbabweans views are formed by pub talk!
Rob you need to keep up with what goes on around you. FYI I don’t drink and don’t patronize Pubs.
It IS a known fact Rob. The tremours started way back in the early ’60s when Kariba started to fill up. I know – I lived at the western end in Binga and the ‘quakes’ were not uncommon.
A-hole, my father, a white man, worked on Kariba Dam.
It was built by an Impresit, an idiot Italian consortium, they fu–ed it up royally.
They called in my father’s Company, (he was a Gunnite and Shotcrete underwater concrete specialist), at Mitchell Company, to try and fix the f–ck up!!
They were told that the Italian screw-ups would need to be rectified in 10 years, that was back in 1958! They never were!
Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique citizens face a huge flood, but I am more concerned for the innocent animal’s fate .
Man is culpable, the elephant is not!
Cry My Beloved Country!
Remember Operation Noah?
It was an engineering masterpiece done by the Italians. They cautioned the powers that be of the spill dam would hold for up to 9 years – it has held for over 50 years. Whoever is in charge of the country’s assets is responsible for this ridiculous current debacle.
Impresit told the original dam engineers that they were actually building it in the wrong place but they would not listen. It will fail. It has lasted much longer than it should have. My mother (who is 86) knows the whole story – she was there. She has the entire set of construction photographs.
Sounds a bit rash. Flooding Lusaka? Lusaka is 700m above the Zambesi valley. Must be bull.
Zimbabwe with a government budget of over $4 billion should be able to afford all necessary repairs. That is if the pigs in power were not stealing it all.
This report came out in 2012
Kariba dam, on the Zambezi river between Zimbabwe and Zambia, was built in the late 1950’s to provide hydro-electric power. Now it seems the dam wall on the Zimbabwean side is cracking and is in danger of collapsing.
The dam is one of the largest in the world, according to a report in The Zimbabwean on Feb. 15, at 128 metres tall and 579 metres long. On Monday Feb 13, the Minister for Energy and Power Development in Zimbabwe, Elton Mangoma, said in a parliamentary committee meeting, that the wall on the Zimbabwe side needs to be anchored to stop it collapsing.
“I repeat that the wall on the Zimbabwean side is weak and requires anchoring and this is being attended to.It is something that is high on the agenda because without the dam wall you really have nothing,”
He told the committee that the Kariba Hydro Power Station currently generates between 735 megawatts and 750 megawatts.
Meanwhile on the Zambian side, one of the generators is to be shut for fourteen days for maintenance work, according to a report in the Lusaka Times. The power company, Zesco, said the shut down would affect it’s ability to produce power for the national grid, with demand outstripping supply. A spokesman for the company, Bestty Phiri said:
“The power deficit would necessitate load-shedding in order for the company to balance the generation capacity with demand.”
Victoria Falls Guide website says that Lake Kariba is 226 kilometres long and 40 kilometres wide at its widest points. The lake is a very popular tourist attraction with incredible scenery, plentiful wildlife and, arguably, the most beautiful sunsets in the world.
At the time that the dam was built, thousands of people from the Tonga tribe were forced to move from their homes to make way for the water. Many animals were trapped as the waters began to rise and ‘Operation Noah’ led by Rupert Fothergill saw over six thousand animals, from the giant elephants down to small birds and even snakes being rescued from islands and moved to what is now known as the Matusadona National Park.
If the dam wall should burst, the devastation the flood waters would cause is incalculable with its effects being felt all the way down the river to Mozambique
John Thomas, the article refers to the Lusaka province, not Lusaka the city.
$$ billion budget for an effing dam!
The people are starving, the children are uneducated, the elderly have no pension, the people are flooded, there is homelessness because of disGrace’s Mazowe land grab.
There is deforestation because of quick cash tobacco, the rivers are done for, because of alluvial gold mining and let us not forget Mugarbage’s and ZANU-PF salaries.
And you thin k they give a shyte for a dam!
Cry this Beloved Country! Cry!
I belive if Kariba goes it will tak Cabora bassa and will cause some phenominal tsunami type tidal wave in some country miles away…can you immagine the international disaster! The IMF world bank an others need to take this seriously and there will need to be some warning system.
The IMF, why, what the f–ck was ZANU-PF doinf, sleeping as Zimbabwe and Kariba died!
Everyone seems to look to the begging bowl, slime!
No offense Reverend but why should the IMF give money when Mugabe and his cronies have stolen billions from Zimbabwe. ZANU should have been maintaining the Dam Wall instead of looting and turning the beautiful country Zimbabwe and her amazing lovely kind people into a total hell on earth.
Yep! Maybe the CEO of Psmas could fund the repair!
Perfect comment, accolades to you Ireland’s Lindy Lou!
Happy St Patrick’s Day to you! Hope you had lotsa corn beef, cabbage, potatoes and green beer girl!
Zanu will go and consult Rotina ,the which doctor. Dimwits.
Another juicy contract for the pigs to get their snouts into.We’ll await the tender process with interest.
Get your buckets and let’s get scooping. Knowing my govt, even if IMF, World Bank gave them the money, Mugabe will gulp it down with a glass of wine and without a care who it may tickle.
Whenever humans do something we disturb the natural environment,so @Doctor do little is right about earth tremors unless the person who disputes it is not technologically inclined.We apologize for this but its true what he has said.
Its not possible to have push back up to Lusaka because of the altitude of Lusaka compared to the Tete region.The most of the floods would be in the Tete region up to the Indian ocean and Malawi South[maybe].Zimbabwe North East would also suffer from these floods including all animals on the path to the Indian ocean.Its more likely that the Cabora Bassa dam wall would be destroyed due to the high pressure caused by the huge water volume.
Mosi-oa-Tunya and Livingston,(which is the city I think they meant to say) will certainly be destroyed, and the memory of a better time, that venerable, old, ugly yet powerful, Queen VICTORIA.
@ Mixed race hats off to you. It is a breath of fresh air to debate with people like you and others at this forum who don’t start typing without think
@ROB This is for you.
AJOL JOURNALS ADVANCED SEARCH AJOL NEWS FAQ’S REGISTER
Earthquakes in Zimbabwe
R. Clark
Abstract
Earthquakes are one of the most destructive natural forces, in both human and economic terms. For example, since 1900, 10 earthquakes have occurred that each killed over 50 000 people. Earthquakes in modern industrialized areas can be also be very costly, even if well designed and constructed buildings save many lives. In Zimbabwe, beginning in February 1959 prompted by fresh seismic (earthquake) activity after the Kariba Dam was sealed in December 1958, seismograph stations began to be installed in the region. Seismographs detect ground vibrations. By 1970, the network consisted of 6 stations (including 1 each in Zambia and Malawi), was operated by the Zimbabwe Meteorological Services from the Goetz Observatory in Bulawayo. Almost all earthquakes in Zimbabwe occur in the Hwange-Zambezi-Kariba or Eastern Highlands areas. Sensitive engineering structures such as the Kariba Dam and power generating facilities around Hwange lie in these areas. However, the central part of Zimbabwe (including the two main cities, Harare and Bulawayo) has almost no earthquakes, only ~1% of the total. Fortunately, most earthquakes in Zimbabwe are quite small: of the ~3 400 earthquakes recorded in a 32 year period, only 30 exceeded a magnitude of 5 on the Richter Scale. The largest earthquake recorded here was in 1963, beneath the newly filled Lake Kariba, measuring 5.8 on the Richter Scale.
Please if they are funds to this cause exclude the politicians in Zimbabwe. Do not even appoint a director from that country because of their records. You can use their technical experts, not managerial because you will cry when then the project does not get completed. I am sure this is going to be a collective job which includes all the nations that are at risk, especially those that are downstream. May you please take action before it becomes dangerous.
Of course, that’s what Mugarbage is looking for.
The Everlasting Begging Bowl!
“We f–cked up Kariba, twenty years ago, and now need your $100 million to fix her wall”.
(That may end up in Singapore, when I have my thirteenth cataract operation, wink, wink!)
It is past fixing by the way! Ask the Engineers!
VP Mujuru could do that with just the loot her filthy, assasinated,(thank the Lord) dead husband stole from Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. $10 billion!
Can you fathom that figure?, when people are starving and dams need walls!
Lucifer the Lord of ZANU-PF rules!
Like Jericho, these dam walls will fall!
He awaits Mugarbage’s arrival with glee!
where are we going to go fishing then !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or where are the fat cats going to write the next constitution from ????????????
In Lake McLlwaine, (Chivero), where the murderers took place, the boat that never should have carried passengers, remember!
Angela Wigmore thanks for the confirmation from someone that truly knows the country. Your contributions are always interesting and useful.
God forbid, is that a white women!
Fire and brimstone!
Don’t you all just LOVE this – sanctions are biting!
AfDB, donors give #Zimbabwe $35M grant
CABS gets $10 million French loan
Kariba dam on verge of collapsing
China managed $300 million, but with contingencies!
WHAT HAVE WE BECOME!
And please repare the The Hotels there as well! Its now a lot mess and filthy .The engineers will need good accommodation and food as well
Cannot even keep the hotels in good order!!
[…] the sector bank, the African construction financial institution and the european Union have agreed to assist fund the restore, in line with the Zimbabwe answer. The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam developed between 1955 and […]
[…] to best avoid disaster. The World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Union have agreed to help fund the repair, according to the Zimbabwe Solution. The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam constructed between 1955 […]
[…] to best avoid disaster. The World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Union have agreed to help fund the repair, according to the Zimbabwe Solution. The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam constructed between 1955 […]