20 March 1999
WCD to Study Kariba Dam and Zambezi River Basin in Zambia and Zimbabwe

The World Commission on Dams is pleased to announce the WCD's independent study of the Kariba Dam and related aspects of the Zambezi River Basin. The bi-national Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), after consultation with the Ministries in charge of the energy portfolio in Zambia and Zimbabwe, supports this study.

The WCD is an independent body composed of 12 international Commission Members who represent various perspectives in the global debate on large dams. The mandate of the Commission is to review the development effectiveness of dams and assess alternatives for water resources and energy development in a global context. The mandate further provides for developing internationally acceptable criteria, guidelines, and standards (where appropriate), for the planning, design, appraisal, construction, operation, monitoring and decommissioning of dams.

The Kariba Dam case study is one of up to 10 case studies of dams in major river basins around the world to be undertaken by the Commission in preparation of its June 2000 final report. The report will provide a framework for future decision-making on dams, which epitomize the many conflicts at the heart of debates over sustainable development. However, it should be noted that the Commission is not judicial in nature and will not adjudicate on disputes over dams. The WCD case studies will underpin that final report by illustrating 'lessons learned' in terms of the myriad impacts -- positive and negative -- of dams on people, the environment, and economies.

The Kariba Dam is the only African case study selected by the World Commission on Dams. The reasons for studying this dam are many. Completed in 1959, Kariba offers 40 years of well-documented experience from which useful lessons can be learned for the future. The Kariba dam is located in a river basin touching upon eight countries, and is the only internationally shared dam in the WCD sample of case studies. Given that there exist more than 200 shared watercourses in the world, of which more than 50 are in Africa, Kariba is a unique example with which to illustrate problems associated with the exploitation of shared rivers. Finally, the Kariba dam and its reservoir have significant impacts on local communities, on the two land-locked states of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and on the Zambezi basin as a whole. These aspects provide an excellent opportunity for discussing the development effectiveness of large dams.

The study will examine the short- and long-term impacts of the Kariba Dam. This dam created one the largest man-made lakes in the world and its installed generation capacity today is 1300 megawatts. While hydropower benefited the economies of Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as urban dwellers whose homes have electricity connections, it came at the cost of displacing more than 50,000 people, mostly belonging to the Tonga ethnic group. In many cases, resettlement was involuntary, and many parties argue that the living conditions of those resettled deteriorated significantly after their move. The WCD will look closely at the history of resettlement around Kariba, as well as recent initiatives by the Zambezi River Authority and the Zambian government to redress grievances surrounding dam-related evictions. The reservoir also displaced wild animals, some of which were moved to new reserves under the highly-publicised "Operation Noah", under which lions, elephants and other animals threatened with inundation were moved to new game reserves. Other social and environmental aspects of the dam under review include its impact on fisheries and food supply in the two land-locked countries; loss of flora and fauna; and the dam's effect on the health of riverbank communities, particularly claims that the dam decreased the incidence of certain illnesses while increasing that of others.

The Secretariat of the WCD has recently selected an inter-disciplinary team of five core members to prepare the "scoping" phase of this study. In this phase the review of key documentation available will be combined with consultation with interested parties to identify the issues to be examined during in the study. This scoping exercise started on May 24, 1999, and will lead to a stakeholder meeting in Kariba Town at the end of June. Because of tight timetables for the overall WCD, the implementation phase of the study will start immediately after the finalisation of the scoping report. The case study will be completed by January 2000.

For questions pertaining to the substantive aspects of the case study, please feel free to contact directly Dr. Norman Reynolds, team leader for the Scoping phase of the study (marketnr@iafrica.com) or contact Dr. Madiodio Niasse (mniasse@dams.org), WCD office in Cape Town at Tel ++27 21 426 4000 fax ++27 21 426 0036 or write the WCD at PO Box 16002, Vlaeberg, Cape Town 8018, South Africa.