Kariba

	Kariba Dam
Click link on thumbnail. More images...! With floodgates open Close up of floodgates	Location	Kariba, (Zambezi River- Zimbabwe/Zambia border)
	Designers	Impresit (Italian firm)
	Date	1955 - December 1958
	Original Client	Zambezi River Authority,
	Style	Reinforced concrete bridge
	Discussion	Kariba's imposing dam wall, a 21m thick concrete arch that towers nearly 128m above the narrow gorge through which the Zambezi river once thundered, stands atop a massive chamber carves out of solid rock that houses the turbines and alternators of the HEP station. The arching 579m long dam wall, contains nearly one million cubic meters of concrete. At maximum capacity it can handle 9000 cubic meters of water per second. At the foot of the spillway drainage has eroded a 60-meter-deep hole in the riverbed. The construction of the wall was plagued by unusually severe floods, which destroyed a coffer dam in March 1957. In all 86 project workers were killed, including 18 who were buried in wet concrete. Legend has it that the Tonga people of the upper Zambezi Valley, who were threatened with inundation or displacement by the proposed lake' had called upon the fish-headed and serpent-tailed Zambezi river God, Nyaminyami. They had asked him to intervene in order to preserve his own environment and assist his neighbours - the Tonga- n their predicament. Until Egypt's Aswan High Dam (1971) was completed, Kariba was Africa's largest hydroelectric project. With the rising waters - which eventually covered 5200 sq. km and held a capacity of 186 billion cubic meters of water - Kariba also rose and metamorphosed into the holiday and service centre it is today. Ref. Deanna Swaney / The Author
	Web Resources
	Credits	SWANEY Deanna - Zimbabwe,Botswana & Namibia (1995)
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