Kariba Dam - Choice of Location

Choice of Location

The Kariba Dam project was proposed and implemented by the government of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, or Central African Federation (CAF). The CAF was a semi-independent state in southern Africa that existed from 1953 to the end of 1963, comprising the former self-governing Dominion of Southern Rhodesia and the British Colonies of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Northern Rhodesia had decided earlier in 1953 (before the Federation was founded) to build a dam within its territory, on the Kafue River, a major tributary of the Zambezi. It would have been closer to Zambia's Copperbelt which was in need of more power. This would have been a cheaper and less grandiose project, with a smaller environmental impact. Southern Rhodesia, the richest of the three, objected to a Kafue dam and insisted that the dam be sited instead at Kariba. Also, the capacity of the Kafue dam was much lower than Kariba. The Zambezi river is the boundary between the two Rhodesias, and so the dam itself and the lake it formed both straddle the boundary. It was hoped that this fact would help to cement the CAF; but the growing clamour for independence led to the breakup of the Federation in 1963. The Kariba Dam is now owned and operated by the Zambezi River Authority, which is jointly and equally owned by Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Since Zambia's independence, two dams have been built on the Kafue River: the Kafue Gorge Dam and the Itezhi-Tezhi Dam.