Kariba Dam
The dam was designed by Coyne et Bellier and constructed between 1955 and 1959 by Impresit of Italy. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 17th May 1960.
The Kariba Dam is a double curvature concrete arch dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The dam stands 128 metres (420 ft) tall and 579 metres (1,900 ft) long. The dam forms Lake Kariba which extends for 280 kilometres (170 mi) and holds 185 cubic kilometres (150,000,000 acre·ft) of water.
The double curvature concrete arch dam was designed by Coyne et Bellier and constructed using Chilanga cement produced in Zambia between 1955 and 1959 by Impresit of Italy at a cost of $135,000,000 for the first stage with only the Kariba South power cavern. Final construction and the addition of the Kariba North Power cavern by Mitchell Construction was not completed until 1977 due to largely political problems for a total cost of $480,000,000. During construction, 86 men lost their lives. The major financiers of the dam where the Federal Government of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Power Generation:
The Kariba Dam supplies 1,626 megawatts (2,181,000 hp) of electricity to parts of both Zambia (the Copperbelt) and Zimbabwe and generates 6,400 gigawatt-hours (23,000 TJ) per annum. Each country has its own power station on the north and south bank of the dam respectively. The south station belonging to Zimbabwe has been in operation since 1960 and has six generators of 111 megawatts (149,000 hp) capacity each for a total of 666 megawatts (893,000 hp)Zambezi River at Kariba gorge
Tourist Attraction:
The dam attracts tourist from all around the country and international visitors who flock to Kariba town for an array of evens and activities.
