View of Lake Kariba from Bumi Hills Safari Lodge
May 16, 1960, the Kariba Dam was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, with the switching on of the first electricity generators, bringing to life one of Africa’s most ambitious projects. The Kariba Dam was constructed between 1956 and 1960, creating, at that time, the largest manmade lake in the world – Lake Kariba.
At the time of its construction, the Kariba Dam was known as “one of the engineering wonders of the world,” a double-curvature, concrete-arch, dam wall standing at a height of 128 meters above the river bed and spanning 617 meters across the Kariba gorge blocking the path of Africa’s second largest river – the mighty Zambezi. The building of the dam wall created an “inland sea,” stretching 280 kilometers in length, covering an area of over 5,500 square kilometers and holding back more than 180 billion tons of water. The dam wall is host to two of Southern Africa’s most important electricity-generating stations, Kariba North Bank Power Station on the Zambian side and Kariba South Bank Power Station on the Zimbabwe side, between them generating a total of 1,320 mega watts of electricity. The Kariba Dam has undoubtedly contributed to the economic and social development of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Southern African Region.
Lake Kariba today is not only the home of one of Southern Africa’s most important sources of energy, the formation of the lake also gave birth to the town of Siavonga and created a vibrant commercial fishing industry and a continuously developing tourism industry offering some of Africa’s most breathtaking scenery with a diversity of fauna and flora, hotel accommodation, sports fishing, water sports, house boating, and a variety of other tourist activities. The 50th anniversary of the opening of the Kariba Dam should not go unmarked.
In Zambia, the town of Siavonga is the focal point of activities emanating from the creation of this magnificent structure – electricity generation, the hotel and tourism industry, the kapenta fishing industry, natural stone mining and cutting, and a variety of other support and service industries and commercial businesses. It has been decided to declare the month of May 2010 the “Anniversary Month” and a number of activities are being planned in Siavonga. All members of the community are invited to contribute to the anniversary celebrations and help to make this event a resounding success. The hotel industry has proposed an itinerary for the “Anniversary Month” by planning a number of events for each weekend of May.
By Gill Staden, eTN
