‘165 days left before Kariba shuts down’

Kariba Dam is now left with capacity to generate power for only 165 days, unless significant water inflows are recorded in the next few months, a Zesa Holdings official has said.

BY TARISAI MANDIZHA

Speaking during a tour of Kariba Power Station last Friday, the power station’s general manager, Kenneth Maswera said water levels in the dam were now at 477,15m which is 1,65m above the minimum power generation threshold. He said these were the lowest levels recorded since the 1992 drought.

“If we are taking a cubic centimetre a day, it will take 165 days, but that is if we don’t get any water inflows,” he said.

“It looks like it has been almost constant, but the water levels are going down and it’s a fact. We have not received any significant inflows, basically the level is going to continue going down if we don’t get any water flows into the lake.”

Maswera said power generation at Kariba Hydropower Station had further declined to 285MW against a generation capacity of 750 megawatts (MW) due to
dwindling water levels in Kariba dam.

“We are 1,65m above the level to generate power and if we go below this level, we will not be able to generate. But there is enough water for fishing and other activities,” he said.

Maswera said Kariba power generation was constructed and designed to operate between 475,5m and 488,50m.

He said the expansion of Kariba South Power Station, which was expected to add 300MW into the national grid was now 40% complete.

The $533 million expansion project, which includes development costs to be met by Zimbabwe Power Company, is being undertaken by a Chinese firm, Sino Hydro and is targeted for completion by 2018.

According to reports, to date, China Exim Bank has disbursed the first tranche of about $100 million under the engineering procurement contract valued at $354 million.

Zimbabwe is generating 1 355MW, with Hwange producing 341MW, Kariba 285MW, Harare 17MW and Munyati 28MW. Imports contributed 450MW against a forecast demand of 1 375MW.

Zesa spokesperson, Fullard Gwasira said despite dwindling water levels at Kariba Dam, the power utility company was working on a number of measures to address power shortages, which include importation of 300MW of electricity from South Africa and another 40MW from Mozambique, Dema emergency diesel power plant and the solar water heating programme among many others.

Zambezi River Authority chief executive officer, Munyaradzi Munodawafa said the situation at Kariba was bad.

Kariba Dam services both Zambia and Zimbabwe and on a daily basis the power stations in the two countries consume between 900 to 1 000 cubic metres of water.

Munodawafa, however, said more rains were expected between this and next month and this will improve the water levels to sustain the two countries up to the winter period.

Source: ‘165 days left before Kariba shuts down’ (22/02/16)

Graph Source: Zambezi River Authority

One of Africa’s Biggest Dams Is Falling Apart

Kariba Dam Troubles

By JACQUES LESLIE

Source: One of Africa’s Biggest Dams Is Falling Apart (2/2/16)

The new year has not been kind to the hydroelectric-dam industry. On January 11th, the New York Times reported that Mosul Dam, the largest such structure in Iraq, urgently requires maintenance to prevent its collapse, a disaster that could drown as many as five hundred thousand people downstream and leave a million homeless. Four days earlier, the energy minister of Zambia declared that Kariba Dam, which straddles the border between his country and Zimbabwe, holding back the world’s largest reservoir, was in “dire” condition. An unprecedented drought threatens to shut down the dam’s power production, which supplies nearly half the nation’s electricity.

The news comes as more and more of the biggest hydroelectric-dam projects around the world are being cancelled or postponed. In 2014, researchers at Oxford University reviewed the financial performance of two hundred and forty-five dams and concluded that the “construction costs of large dams are too high to yield a positive return.” Other forms of energy generation—wind, solar, and miniature hydropower units that can be installed inside irrigation canals—are becoming competitive, and they cause far less social and environmental damage. And dams are particularly ill-suited to climate change, which simultaneously requires that they be larger (to accommodate the anticipated floods) and smaller (to be cost-effective during the anticipated droughts).

Mosul Dam’s predicament is partly a result of the ongoing war; many maintenance workers have not returned there since August of 2014, when ISIS fighters briefly took control. (Iraqi and Kurdish forces soon regained it.) But the main issue is that, like many such dams, the project shouldn’t exist in the first place. Opened in 1986, it was built on unstable gypsum bedrock, requiring grout to be constantly injected into the foundation to prevent the dam’s collapse. That work has ceased. In 2006, long before ISIS began making headlines, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called Mosul Dam “the most dangerous dam in the world.”

Kariba’s difficulties are more complicated. It has been nearly incapacitated by ongoing drought, which has lowered the reservoir’s volume to twelve per cent of its usual capacity. But if the reservoir is refilled, the dam faces the possibility of collapse. It was built in the late nineteen-fifties, and in the years since water flowing through the dam’s six floodgates has carved a three-hundred-foot-deep pit, or plunge pool, at its base. The plunge pool extends to within a hundred and thirty feet of the dam’s foundation; if it reaches the foundation, the dam will collapse. That seems hard to imagine now, with the reservoir at a record-low level. But the Zambezi River Basin, on which the dam sits, is the most susceptible of Africa’s thirteen basins to exceptional droughts and floods, and climate change is intensifying both.

Kariba’s collapse, like Mosul’s, would constitute an epochal event in the history of energy development—the dam industry’s Chernobyl. The ensuing torrent would be four times bigger than the Zambezi’s biggest recorded flood, in 1958, and would release enough water to knock over another major dam three hundred miles downstream, in Mozambique. At least three million people live in the flood’s path; most would die or lose their crops or possessions. About forty per cent of the electricity-generating capacity of twelve southern African nations would be eliminated.

The dam, four hundred and twenty feet tall and nearly two thousand feet wide, was built with financing from the World Bank to provide power for the copper mines of what was then Northern Rhodesia. The designers intended to make the dam impervious to a one-in-ten-thousand-year flood, but their calculations were based on only three decades of Zambezi flow data—a period too short to permit credible forecasting. This flaw became apparent in 1957, when the site, still under construction, was hit with a flood bigger than the designers’ worst-case projection. The planners hurriedly enlarged the spillway, but in 1958 the project was hit by another flood, twice as big as the previous one, so the spillway was expanded again. More recent projections, cited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, indicate that the Zambezi River Basin will experience still drier and more prolonged droughts and even bigger floods in years to come.

Since the nineteen-nineties, Kariba’s operators have been allowed to open only three of the dam’s six floodgates at a time, for fear of enlarging the plunge pool. If the reservoir fills to a dangerous level, the operators face two options: allow water to flow over the top of the dam and tumble down its face, threatening the foundation, or, more likely, open more than three floodgates, causing the plunge pool to expand. To head off a catastrophe, the World Bank and other international lenders agreed in November of 2014 to provide a loan of nearly three hundred million dollars to repair it, stating that the project requires “immediate attention.”

But “immediate” means decades, not years. “It takes a long time to carry out the necessary due diligence and secure the financing for a complex project like this,” Munyaradzi Munodawafa, the chief executive of the Zambezi River Authority, which operates Kariba, told me in an e-mail. “We’re looking at a fifteen- to twenty-year process, in which we are five years under way.” To repair the dam, workers will enlarge the plunge pool downstream, to reduce erosion near the foundation. But it’s not certain to work, and major flooding could occur before the repairs are completed.

The World Bank and other international financiers like dams because they seem to offer large-scale solutions to energy and water shortages. Kariba is just one of more than two thousand large dams in Africa; Zimbabwe, one of the world’s poorest nations, has at least two hundred and fifty-four. But maintaining a dam is expensive—and much less popular than building one. Even in affluent countries such as the United States—whose dam infrastructure is in sufficient disrepair to have earned a “D” rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers, in 2013—maintenance is often neglected; it’s not likely to fare better in impoverished, corruption-ridden countries such as Zimbabwe or Iraq. Dams can’t be drained, and dismantling them can be as costly as building them. It’s the trap of Industrial Age technology: once mechanized systems supplant natural ones, they must be managed in perpetuity, or else they break down.

Source: One of Africa’s Biggest Dams Is Falling Apart (2/2/16)

Earthquake rattles Kariba

A 4,6 magnitude earthquake hit the Kariba area and parts of neighbouring Zambia on Saturday morning, raising fears about the safety of the vulnerable Kariba dam wall, although no damages were recorded on it and other infrastructure.

Kariba residents and their northern neighbours woke up to the rattling effects of the quake which lasted for about 15 seconds on Saturday at around 4am.

The quake was recorded by various organisations, with the Zambezi River Authority confirming the incident.

ZRA chief executive officer, Mr Munyaradzi Munodawafa, said yesterday that their infrastructure at Kariba was safe.

"Yes, there was a mild earthquake on Saturday, but the dam wall was not affected," said Mr Munodawafa. "No houses were damaged or infrastructure and that means the acceleration and velocity of the quake was not high."

Mr Munodawafa said the seismic risk analysis and diagnosis machine that monitors and assesses risk on the Kariba dam wall did not record any damage.

The Kariba dam wall was reported to have developed cracks way back, raising fears of a major catastrophe in the event of further strain.

The cracks are being attended to, with work and consultations at various stages.

Mr Munodawafa said a full assessment of Saturday's quake was still underway, with a full report expected soon.

Kariba resident Mr Sam Mawawo confirmed being woken up by the quake on Saturday morning.

"I was awakened by the rattling pots, pans and plates in the house which lasted for some seconds, but it was frightening," he said.

There are unconfirmed reports of one house having developed a crack as a result of the impact in the Baobab area of Kariba, but there were indications the house was not structurally sound.

Kariba district administrator Mr Amigo Mhlanga said he was yet to be briefed on the effects of the earthquake.

"My assistants are still assessing the situation and they will brief me of what took place and if there is any effect at all," he said.

Traditionalists view the tremors as a confirmation from the gods of their happiness following the conducting of rituals there recently.

Further north, the tremor was felt in most parts of the capital Lusaka and southern provinces of Zambia.

The United States Geographical Survey estimated the quake at 4,6 in magnitude.

The Earthquaker-Report.com, which monitors earthquakes, recorded what it termed "a moderate earthquake" in Kariba.

Most people on both sides of the Zambezi River feared for the worst in view of reports of the vulnerability of the Kariba dam wall.

The US Geographical Survey notes that earthquakes with magnitude of up to 2,0 on the Richter Scale (a unit of measurement of earthquakes) are normally known as micro-earthquakes and are generally undetected, only picked up by localised seismographs.

Those of magnitudes of 4.5 or greater are strong enough to be recorded by sensitive seismographs.

Online earthquake monitors triangulated the epicentre about 31 kilometres from Chirundu at a depth of 10km underground.

Source: Earthquake rattles Kariba (12/01/16)

World's Biggest Dam Has ‘Extremely Dangerous’ Low Water Levels

Water levels at Kariba dam, the world’s largest, are at “extremely dangerous” lows that could force a shutdown of its hydro power plants, said Zambian Energy Minister Dora Siliya.

Poor rainfall and overuse of water by Zambia and Zimbabwe, the southern African countries that share the reservoir, have caused its levels to drop, with electricity generation already reduced by more than half. As of Dec. 28, Kariba was 14 percent full, compared with 51 percent a year earlier, according to the dam’s regulator.

“The situation is dire,” Siliya told reporters Thursday in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. “I’m praying. We sit here and gaze at the sky and say, ‘please, the levels of Kariba are at extremely dangerous levels.’” A continued absence of rains could force the power plants to shut down altogether, she said.

Mining companies in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer have had to reduce their electricity use and buy expensive imports at a time when plunging metal prices have triggered the mothballing of some mines and more than 10,000 job cuts. Households and businesses endure power cuts as long as 14 hours a day. The cost of importing power and emergency generation could threaten the government’s 3.8 percent budget deficit target for 2016.

‘Most Vulnerable’

Zambia is the most vulnerable country in sub-Saharan Africa to the El Nino weather system, partly because of its dependence on hydro power for more than 95 percent of generation, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts including Oyinkansola Anubi said in a November note. Six of Zambia’s 10 provinces have received below-normal rainfall this wet season, Meteorological Department director Jacob Nkomoki said in comments broadcast on Lusaka-based Radio Phoenix Dec. 4.

Water flows in the Zambezi river that feeds Kariba on Dec. 28 were 27 percent lower than a year earlier when measured at the Victoria Falls, about 125 kilometers (78 miles) upstream from the dam, according to data from the Zambezi River Authority. At Chavuma, about 600 kilometers north-west and near the river’s source, flows had started to improve and were 23 percent higher on Dec. 28 than a year earlier.

Water levels at Kariba on the same date were 477.57 meters (1,567 feet) above sea level, barely exceeding the minimum of 475.50 meters for hydro power operations, according to the authority. The government will spend $1.2 billion to mitigate the power crisis, Siliya said.

The Zambian government has prepared for the possibility of halting generation at Kariba, Siliya said. The measures include setting up emergency thermal power plants due to produce 250 megawatts by early March, as well as a 200-megawatt power-ship to be docked off the coast of neighboring Mozambique, she said. A 300-megawatt coal power station is also expected to start operations by June.

The country’s power deficit would grow to 1,000 megawatts by the end of December 2015, about half of normal peak demand, Siliya told lawmakers in November. Kariba may have to shut down by October this year if rainfall is low and Zambia and Zimbabwe continue to overuse its water, she said at the time.

“Our contingency is to make sure that even if we have to shut down there must be power coming,” Siliya said Thursday. “God forbid where we should have a situation where we might say we have to shut them down because the water level is below the minimum recommended.”

Source: World's Biggest Dam Has ‘Extremely Dangerous’ Low Water Levels (08/01/16)

Engineers Insist Corrupt Zesco Upgrades Are Causing Water Shortages and Power Cuts

More information has surfaced regarding the actual causes of ZESCO power cuts due to what PF has claimed low water levels at Kariba Dam because there was not enough rainfall last season.

As earlier reported by the Zambianwatchdog, there was enough rainfall along the Zambezi River basin stretching from Northwestern province, Copperbelt, all the way along the Zambezi River to Kariba Dam, which is a water reservoir.

The problem was the corrupt manner in which the Chinese Company, Sino-Hydro did the upgrades at Kariba North-Bank Power station.

Highly placed sources within the PF regime have insisted that the Kariba North Bank Chinese made Turbines which were upgraded have a lower power output compared to the older British made machines which were replaced according to the dam's specifications.

There is indeed some truth now that the dam is fast running out of water because the flow of water was increased in order to cover the shortfalls in output to run the new fake Chinese turbines.

"This has angered Zambezi River Authority partners on the Zimbabwean side to remind us that the volumes of water dispensed had increased over the last year due to our turbines running more outflow than originally designed prior to this upgrade," sources have revealed.

Highly placed insiders revealed classified information to the effect that Lake Kariba Dam was created and designed to operate between levels 475.50 meters and 488.50 meters with a 0.70 meters freeboard at all times.

But due to the increased water outflows being demanded by the Chinese electricity turbines, the water levels dropped by 14 centimeters during the week from 13th July to 19th July 2015 alone to close at 4.99 meters lower than the level recorded last year on the same week yet all the spillway gates at Kariba remained closed during the week under review.

The question Zambians must be asking is why the PF resorted to acquiring such substandard equipment from the Eurobond money against what was prescribed?

Source: Engineers Insist Corrupt Zesco Upgrades Are Causing Water Shortages and Power Cuts (31/07/15)
UPDATE: Zambia's Kariba dam—world’s largest made by man— drying up: 10 brain-twisting facts about Africa’s energy use (21/08/15)
MORE: Zambia's power woes: All roads lead to Kariba Dam (02/09/15)

Zim/Zam receive 275m for urgent Kariba Dam repairs

Zimbabwe and Zambia have secured $275 million in loans and grants for urgent repairs to the gigantic power-generating Kariba Dam on the border between the two countries, the World Bank announced Wednesday, 17 December.

The move comes after warnings earlier this year that cracks in the man made wall standing 128 metres (420 feet) high could result in a disastrous collapse and flooding in four countries.

The European Union will provide the largest chunk of $100 million, while the World Bank and the African Development Bank will each chip in with $75 million in loans. Sweden is giving a $25 million grant.

The repairs will cost $300 million (240 million euros), and the two countries will pay the difference, said the bank.

Kariba Dam is one of the world's largest, generating more than 1,300 megawatts of hydro-power for the two countries.

Dam officials and the two governments early this year raised the alarm over the cracks in the wall, saying it needed to be repaired within three years to prevent it from collapsing.

World Bank representative Kundhavi Kadiresan described the repairs as "very important" to ensure the safety and reliability of the dam.

She said "very urgent action" was needed "to avoid a potential emergency situation that would have resulted in a devastating situation in the entire Zambezi river basin and loss of human life."

Should the dam wall collapse, flooding from the Zambezi River could hit parts of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique, affecting millions of people. Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa also cautioned on the
dangers of not fixing the dam.

"We must maintain the safety of the dam wall, otherwise anything that could happen to it will have very ghastly consequences," he said at a joint news conference with the World Bank. The dam, built in 1955, is situated in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi River basin.

Source: Zimbabwe, Zambia get 275m for urgent Kariba Dam repair (23/12/14)

$500M Kariba expansion commissioned

$533M Kariba project begins •Station to generate 300MW more by 2017

President Mugabe yesterday commissioned the construction of the US$533 million Kariba South Power Extension Project expected to generate an additional 300MW by 2017. The project had been on the cards for years with its implementation hampered by the shortage of foreign currency among other obstacles.

Over the years, the power sector has experienced challenges largely due to dilapidated and obsolete generation equipment and infrastructure as well as inadequate financing and capitalisation and other structural bottlenecks.

The US$320 million loan extended by the Chinese government has, however, made the project a reality with the Zimbabwe Power Company weighing in with US$213 million borrowed from Development Finance Institutions.

Speaking soon after the groundbreaking ceremony, President Mugabe said he was happy that finally the project was taking shape. “The Kariba Extension project has been on Zesa’s drawing board for a very long time. It’s coming to fruition has been hampered by many challenges which include shortage of foreign currency during the hyperinflation era. The feasibility studies for the project were eventually updated, paving the way for its completion and implementation,” President Mugabe said.

“The successful completion and commissioning of this project, Kariba South Power Station Extension, will add 300 megawatts of power to the national grid. Indeed, the project is a vital component of the Government’s strategy to meet the country’s electricity demands. It is part of our major plan to guarantee the constant and consistent supply of energy for our country.”

President Mugabe said the project entailed construction of an additional two 150MW power generating units to complement the current six 125MW generating units.

“This will increase the total capacity at the Kariba Hydro Power Station from 750MW to 1050MW. This additional capacity will serve the peak demand, significantly reducing the load shedding that we are currently experiencing,” he said.

Added President Mugabe: “Projects such as this one, do not merely bring power into our homes and workplaces, but they also empower the people of Zimbabwe. I am informed that over the four years that the project will be implemented, it will employ a total of 700 workers with the majority of the general workers drawn from local communities. To date, about 200 workers have been engaged.”

He said power projects like the Kariba Power Station Extension were an important part of Government’s goal towards an empowered society and a growing economy.

“Adequate power supply infrastructure, not only helps attract investors to our country but in bringing electricity to rural areas, which improves the quality of life to our rural people,” President Mugabe said.

He said hydro-power projects were costly to undertake and thanked the Chinese government for funding the extension of Kariba South through a loan facility.

“The implementation of this project is expected to cost a total of $533 million. I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Chinese government for extending a loan of $320 million for the implementation of this project. The balance, $213 million, is provided for by Zimbabwe Power Company borrowing from Development Finance Institutions,” President Mugabe said.

“We also need hydro projects such as Batoka and Devils Gorge on the Zambezi River, Gairezi, Tokwe Mukosi, Kondo, as well as other small hydros, on both existing and proposed national dams. I understand that through such small hydro projects, we can generate a total of 5000MW nationwide. Such a development would provide the nation with additional and cheaper electricity for both industry and commerce, and as a result, attract investment to Zimbabwe. We certainly should actively pursue this line of action.”

President Mugabe said Government recognised the key role the energy sector plays as an economic enabler. “For this reason, we have taken great steps to create an environment where participation in the power sector and state owned companies, such as the Zimbabwe Power Company. The regulatory framework, and the requisite statutes, are in place. This has seen development of power generation projects by Independent Power Producers (IPPs), who, I am advised, are already providing power from small hydro power station generation plants,” he said.

President Mugabe warned that delays in the implementation of public projects as has been the case in the past would not be tolerated. “I, however, would like to observe that implementation of public projects has, in the past, been characterised by inefficiency, delays, and lack of commitment, which, cumulatively, have often compromised the cost-effectiveness of the projects. This cannot be allowed to continue. Zimbabwe values the dependable supply of electricity from Kariba Power Station, which has supported the nation’s economy over the past five decades,” he said.

President Mugabe urged the Ministry of Energy and Power Development to ensure the Kariba South Extension project is well executed and applauded the Zambezi River Authority for the rehabilitation of flood gates and the remodeling of the plunge pool to ensure it does not become a threat to the integrity of the dam wall.

He bemoaned the theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure saying it was a blow to efforts by Government to provide uninterrupted power.

“We are, however, concerned that of late, theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure has been escalated. Thus, as we try to increase power generation and extend the national grid, some elements in our society are hell bent on taking us back. The most effective way of combating this scourge is social policing. Communities must report the perpetrators of such crimes to the police and other security agents, and the courts must take a dim view of such crimes as provided for in our existing law. Deterrent sentences must be handed down,” he said.

Source: $533m Kariba project begins, The Herald, Zimbabwe (05/09/14)

Zimbabwe settles $30 million debt owed to Zambia

Zimbabwe has settled the outstanding $30 million owed to Zambia as principal debt accrued through the acquisition of power generation equipment under the defunct Central African Power Corporation (CAPCO) which the two countries co-owned.

Zimbabwe owed Zambia $70 million after acquiring power generation assets when CAPCO was dissolved to form the Zambezi River Authority(ZRA).

The two countries agreed that the debt be settled in installments by not later than April 30, 2014.

Mines, Energy and Water Development Minister Christopher Yaluma said the debt had been settled in full as agreed upon by the two Governments.

Yaluma however, said interest of $114 million accrued on the debt but both Governments have reached a mutual agreement that this should be settled through a devised settlement plan.

"The Government of Zimbabwe has settled the remaining $30 million, completing the $70 million owed to Zambia after the dissolution of CAPCO which was reconstituted as the Zambezi River Authority," Yaluma said.

Source: Zimbabwe settles $30 million debt owed to Zambia (Bulawayo News24, 09-05-14)

Kariba concerns cause review of disaster plans

Source: IRIN
In early March engineers at a conference organized by the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA, a Zambia-Zimbabwe organization which manages the Kariba Dam), warned that the 128-metre-high dam could collapse, threatening at least 3.5 million people especially in Mozambique and Malawi.
Years of erosion had made the foundations of the dam weaker, said engineers. "Anything is possible, so there is a need to act to avoid risk and minimize panic,” Modibo Traore, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) in Zimbabwe, told IRIN. The Kariba Dam holds one of the largest man-made expanses of water in the world.
ZRA says the “situation at the Kariba Dam wall is a cause for grave concern”, and “all urgency is expected in order to avert any such catastrophe as dam failure”. It acknowledged the need for major repairs.
Pawadyira said the CPU was in constant touch with the military, police and ZRA to map out an emergency plan to respond to early warnings of a disaster at Kariba. “We have inspected the dam wall and are making plans, particularly with the military, which would provide helicopters and rescue personnel, on how to evacuate and search for victims of a possible… flood", he said. They are also warning communities of the threat; and are in constant touch with the Zambian and Mozambican authorities with updates, he added.
In the event of a wall collapse, Pawadyira said the waters would move with “tremendous speed”, and reach an area about 150km away within seven hours, a likelihood, he said, that required “utmost readiness” as the waters could easily submerge villages, buildings and drown people downstream of the dam, in Zambia as well as Mozambique.
A collapse of the Kariba Dam, which generates hydro-power, would not only affect livelihoods of communities and commercial entities that depend on it for tourism and fish, but also electricity in southern Africa, Erich Bloch, a well-known Zimbabwean economist, pointed out.
A fundraising committee has been formed to look for money to reshape and stabilize the plunge pool at the bottom of the Kariba Dam to reduce further erosion at the base of the dam which could lead to its collapse, according to ZRA.
When the dam was constructed between 1954 and 1959, engineers estimated that the pool would stretch for a maximum 10km, but it has spread about 90km putting additional pressure on the dam wall.
A joint communiqué by Zimbabwean and Zambian energy ministers, who visited the Kariba Dam recently, said major repair works needing US$230 million would start in 2015 with financial support from the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Union.
Kariba Dam collapse fears and disaster preparedness in Zimbabwe, IRIN (9 April 2014)

Concerns over Kariba (updated)

Following headlines in national media over the last couple of days the Zambezi River Authority have issued a short statement: “We would like to inform the public that the comments in the Newsday article of March 20, 2014, 'Kariba Dam wall faces collapse,' were made during a roundtable discussion with co-operating partners. Scenarios were presented on what could happen should rehabilitation works not be taken up with urgency. Please, DO NOT BE ALARMED. Measures are underway to start the rehabilitation process in the third quarter of the year. The meeting at which these issues were presented was to raise funds for the works to start around September. We are putting up a full statement shortly."
Headlines earlier this week in Zimbabwe claimed the lives of 3.5 million people were at risk following the revelation that Kariba Dam is in need of yet more urgent repairs.
According to reports the wall of Kariba Dam has developed problems and may collapse if repair is not carried out in the next three years. Felix Nkulukusa, chairperson of an inter-governmental committee mobilising funds for the dam's repair, is quoted as saying "The engineers said if nothing is done in the next three years, the dam may be swept away. An unstable foundation can wash away the dam - a potential catastrophe for the 3.5 million people along the Zambezi River mainly in Mozambique and Malawi," he said.
About US$250 million is required to repair the dam situated in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi River basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Union have agreed in principle to fund the repair.
The dam wall was built between 1955 and 1959 and holds back some 64,800 Mm3 of water in the reservoir. The integrity of the dam wall is checked each working day by a team of experts.
Sources: Three million at risk as Kariba Dam wall faces collapse (New Zimbabwe, 19/03/14)
Kariba dam on verge of collapsing (Bulawayo24, 19/03/14)

Kariba cracks spark fears

Kariba Dam Cracks Send Fears of Looming Tragedy
Zambia Reports
June 28, 2013

Government panic over the cracking Kariba Dam wall has finally forced them to scout for a contractor to undertake the delicate process of refurbishment. The Kariba Dam wall has spotted some cracks and its deterioration could lead to loss of life and disrupt the power supply in the country. Energy minister Christopher Yaluma said government has finally gone shopping for a contractor in South Africa. Yaluma, who did not disclose the name of the company, admitted that the falling of the wall would be a huge catastrophe. He said the matter would be dealt with urgently to avert the crisis.

Source: Kariba Dam Cracks Send Fears of Looming Tragedy

Zimbabwe targets rural tourism development projects ahead of UNWTO

A United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) official last week held discussions with the government on the Tourism Assistance programme for Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe Government and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) are working towards boosting the country’s tourism brand name, 'A World of Wonders' in advance of the UNWTO General Assembly scheduled for August this year.
UNWTO director of technical cooperation, Harsh Varma visited Harare and held meetings with the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe, followed by consultations with other stakeholders.
The Standard reported a decision was made to first take up the complete spatial planning for two Tourism Development Zones at Kariba and Masvingo, as financial resources were still being mobilised for the Tourism Master Plan. It is understood that these two projects could be developed as quick-win projects for showcasing before the UNWTO General Assembly scheduled for August this year.
Several aspects related to the spatial planning process for the two projects include overall physical planning of the two tourism zones, specifying the tourism resources, detailed area demarcation, a comprehensive inventory of tourism resources, their qualitative assessment and a detailed marketing strategy bringing out the unique features of each zone.
Central to the spatial planning process was the development of community-based and rural tourism in both the zones. This would include identification of communities, development of a programme of homesteads, involvement of women and youth, promotion of arts and craft, local cuisine, festivals and other activities.
It was agreed that the formulation of a five-year implementation action plan for the key performance areas, actions and outcomes was imperative. The cost, time frames and responsibilities for executing the action plan would also be clearly specified.
It was noted that the endeavour would be to initiate implementation of the project by the end of March and complete it by mid-July this year.
It was also agreed that consultants at national level with expertise in the field of tourism would be utilised while also deploying international consultants in some disciplines so as to give project outcomes an international flavour, based on the best practices and success stories from other destinations.
A budget of US$210,000 was drawn up for international consultants, while other charges and expenses brought the grand total to US$301,400.
Read full report here.