21 March 1999
WCD to Study Zambezi River's Kariba Dam

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.

This 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 might of the 2650-kilometer Zambezi River is legendary. It cuts a swathe through Africa from Angola, which borders the Atlantic, to Mozambique on the Indian Ocean, and along the way it forms the border between land-locked Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Zambezi is best known for its 107 meter-drop at Victoria Falls, so named by English explorer David Livingstone in 1855. The local Ndebele people called the falls 'Amanza Thunquayo', or 'Water Rising as Smoke'.

In 1956 the white minority governments of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (now Malawi) decided to dam the Zambezi below Victoria Falls at Kariba. The principal aim was to produce hydropower to fuel development of the region's Copperbelt. Otherwise, electricity would have been generated by burning coal.

"Building a dam is often the single most important decision a country will make in the span of four or five decades," said Professor Kader Asmal, Chairperson of the World Commission on Dams and South Africa's Minister for Water Affairs and Forestry. "One such dam can cost billions of borrowed dollars and the decision to proceed is based largely on projections. Understanding where such planning has gone right and wrong will help the WCD formulate guidelines on how it should be carried out in future."

Completed in 1959 with a surface area of 5,500 square kilometers, the Kariba Dam is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world and its installed generation capacity today is 1300 megawatts. After Zambia gained independence in 1964 and relations soured with the white government in Rhodesia, Zambia built two dams of its own near Kafue which, together with Kariba, provide 50 per cent Zimbabwe's and Zambia's electricity.

While hydropower benefitted the two nation's economies as well as urban dwellers whose homes have electricity connections, it came at the cost of displacing 57,000 people, mostly belonging to the Tonga ethnic group. The Kariba dam was built without a credible resettlement programme for those displaced, a situation common to dam projects of the time. Overall, the displacement and resettlement process was directive and in some cases involved violent confrontations. In both Zambia and Zimbabwe, 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 these 40-year-old grievances.

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 as well as 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.

"Another interesting aspect of Kariba is that it gives the opportunity to study a dam managed jointly by two governments and a river basin shared by eight countries," said Achim Steiner, WCD Secretary-General. "It is that sort of co-operation that will offer the WCD the kinds of 'lessons learned' to guide dam decision-making in future."

The WCD Kariba study also will examine the long-term benefits and perils in investing in a huge dam principally to exploit a single commodity (copper). That production made Zambia one of the most promising countries in Africa in both the pre- and post-independence eras. More recently, copper production and markets have become unpredictable, as have the annual flows of the mighty Zambezi which, in the early 1990s, were inadequate to keep the hydro turbines turning and Zimbabwe was forced to turn to coal generation as a back-up. Another economic impact under study will be that of tourism, as Kariba is a major attraction. For example, over 10,000 people visited in September 1998 to see three of the floodgates opened for 30 minutes.