STORY OF MIGHTY KARIBA DAM

Kabriba in 1959

Kariba in 2023-24

BY MOSES WALUBITA

LUSAKA

IN his book, ‘RHODESIA’ AND NYASALAND LANDS AND PEOPLES’, published in 1961, Colin Black writes that a wall 420 feet high and nearly half a mile wide has tamed one of Africa’s greatest rivers.

At Kariba Gorge on the Zambezi River, some 200 miles to the east of the Victoria Falls, a great curved concrete wall was completed in 1959 and finally check the flow of a river which no African had lived near its bank or seen the power of its flood would agree could ever be halted.

“By the end of 1959, the lake which was forming was estimated to be half full. The waters will be pushing back for 175 miles and with a width varying between twenty and ten miles the area of Lake Kariba will be about 2,000 square miles - or just about enough to cover Northern Rhodesia’s Copperbelt”, Colin Black notes.

He adds: “It will be three times the size of the island of Mauritius or a quarter the area of Israel. Such a sheet of water forming the greatest man-made lake in the world - four times the size of Hoover Dam in the United States - and forming a hundred rivers to un backwards into the boundary hills, has set problems as well as records.”

On the northern bank, where the area was more crowded, some of the tribes refused to move, and the Northern Rhodesia Government (present day Zambia) had to force the old men, women and children to leave their low-lying villages for the safety of higher ground.

According to Colin Black, it had been apparent, however that two Rhodesias - Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) would have to use their potential resources for hydro-electric power if their economic progress were to be maintained and then accelerated.

The former British territories belonged to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland which lasted from 1953 to 1963.

After many investigations Lord Malvern, then Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, told the Federal Parliament in 1955, that the Government had decided to proceed with the Kariba project.

On January 1, 1960, the first power from Kariba flowed to Northern Rhodesia’s Copperbelt.”

 Sir Duncan Anderson, the Chairman of the Federal Power Board, said: “The Kariba project has been an example to the world of the way in which Europeans and Africans can work together, pulling together vigorously on the same rope in the same way.”

Sir Duncan had been knighted for his work at Kariba. As Colin Black writes, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland had a cabinet and government modelled on the British system and its Parliament was in effect, a miniature of the House of Commons.

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland comprised Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (now Malawi). Sir Roy Welensky (20 January, 1907-5 December, 1991) was the last Federal Prime Minister.

The history of the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) may be said to have begun in November 1964 when the Central African Council appointed the Inter-Territorial Hydro-Electric Commission.

In May 1951 the Inter-Territorial Hydro-Electric Commission recommended the development of a dam at Kariba electric power station.

In June 1954 the Hydro-Electric Power Act was passed which provided for the establishment of the Federal Hydro-Electric Board charged with the function of Coordinating the generation and supply of electricity within the Federation.

The Zambezi River Authority says in May 1956 the Federal Power Board was established pursuant to the enactment of the Electric Act. This was a reconstitution of the Federal Hydro-Electric Board.

The new Federal Power Board was vested with the power to build dams and power stations to transmit electric power and sell same to Electricity undertakings. A hydrological data collection organisation territory was also established. In 1963, the Federation was dissolved.

 The integrated system for the control of generation of power and its transmission continued to be operated and was fully developed as a single system under joint ownership and control of the two Governments of Northern and Southern Rhodesia under the Central African Power Corporation (CAPCO) which was established in the same year.

The Central African Power Corporation was vested with the assets and liabilities of the Federal Power Board.

The general function of Central African Power Corporation was to supply electricity to Electricity undertakings in the two territories while its conduct was regulated by a higher authority for power comprising two ministers appointed by each of the two Governments.

In 1987 the Zambezi River Authority Act was passed simultaneously in the two states of Zambia and Zimbabwe dissolving Central African Power Corporation and reconstituting it as Zambezi River Authority (ZRA).

Central African Power Corporation (CAPCO) was divested of its electricity production and bulk distribution assets which were allocated to the National Electricity undertakings of the two states.

The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) was therefore left with the responsibility of the operation and maintenance of Kariba Dam Complex, investigation and development of new dam sites on the Zambezi River and analysing and disseminating hydrological and environmental information pertaining to the mighty Zambezi River and Lake Kariba.

The Zambezi River is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa, according to the Zambia Tourism Agency.

The 2,574 km (1,599 miles) river rises in Zambia and flows through eastern Angola, along the north-east border of Namibia and the northern border of Botswana, then along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, where it crosses Mozambique to empty into the Indian Ocean.

The Zambezi’s most noted feature is Victoria Falls but there is so much more. Other notable waterfalls include Chavuma Falls at the border between Zambia and Angola, and Ngonye Falls, near Sioma in Western Zambia.

The Zambia Tourism Agency says hippo, Nile crocodiles and monitor lizards are commonly found along many of the calm stretches of the Zambezi River. Species of birdies, like heron, pelican, egret and African fish eagle are found in large numbers here. Riverine woodlands then support many large animals such as buffalo, zebra, giraffe and elephant.

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