adminVarious towns and tourist resorts have been established on both sides of Lake Kariba. Notable ones are Kariba in Zimbabwe and Siavonga in Zambia.
Lake Kariba has become a tourist venue for Zambia and Zimbabwe, with hotels and camping facilities overlooking the spectacularly beautiful lakeshore.
With a surface area of some 5 580 square kilometres, a length of 280 kilometres and average width of 18 kilometres, water sports such as angling and sailing are extremely popular. Various houseboats and speedboats cruise the waters of the lake.
Apart from giving Zambia and Zimbabwe affordable hydroelectricity, and providing countless tourist pleasures, Lake Kariba is also used for commercial kapenta fishing and irrigation.
The wildlife on the lakeshore is also a sight to behold. Elephants, buffalo, leopard, lion and a host of smaller game are abundant, while the waters of the lake itself support fish life, hippo and crocodile.
Lake Kariba is studded with islands and surrounded by mountains and forests which fringe its shores, the most intriguing is found at Matusadonha National Park.
Once on dry land, the thousands of teak trees were half submerged in water as the lake slowly expanded to its present dimensions. Today the skeletal branches of the trees jut out into the sky as if from another world.
Facts about Kariba Dam and Power Station
Cost: £122 million
Owner: Governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe
Operator: Zambezi River Authority
Dam Wall: Built between 1956 and 1959
Type: Double curvature concrete arch dam
Height: 128 metres
Crest Length: 617 metres
Width: 13 metres at the top, 24 metres at the base
Volume of Concrete: 1 032 000 cubic metres
Spillway: Six floodgates each 9 metres x 8,8 metres
Flow Through One Gate at Max Retention Level: 1 574 cubic metres per second, which is equivalent to 136 000 000 000 litres per day
Plunge/Spilling Pool: Depth 81 metres
Volume 335 000 cubic metres of water
Power Station South Bank (ZESA): 6×111 MW, which is 666MW, currently being upgraded to 750MW
North Bank (ZESCO): 4x150MW, which is 600MW
Dam Reservoir
Length: 280 kilometres
Width: Widest, 32 kilometres, Average 18 kilometres
Max Retention Level (MRL): 487,8 metres (above mean sea level)
Min Operating Level: 474.8 metres (above mean sea level)
Surface Area at MRL: 5 580 square kilometres (same size as Wales)
Volume of Water at MRL: 185 billion cubic metres, enough to supply Greater London for 300 years
Mean Annual Evaporation: 1,56metres (this drop will expose 236,25 square kilometres of land)
Average Depth: 20 metres
Deepest: 120 metres
Shoreline: 2 000 kilometres
When a spillway gate is fully open, the water jets out about 43 metres from the wall, landing in the plunge/stilling pool which acts a shock absorber for the foundations of the wall and surrounding river bank. The plunge/stilling pool is currently about 81 metres at its deepest end.
When all spillway gates are fully open, the amount of water discharged is far more than any flow which has gone over the Victoria Falls since water flow records started at Victoria Falls in 1907. This is why radio broadcasts and Press announcements are made well in advance of any such spilling.
The Italian company, Impresit, also built the church of Santa Barbara in Kariba, situated at Kariba Heights. The church is of particular architectural interest and was built in memory of the 21 people who died due to accidents associated with the construction of the Kariba Dam.- Courtesy of Kariba Dam, A Visitor’s Guide.
Online Reporter