Kariba Dam

A major concrete arch dam on the Zambezi R at the Zambia–Zimbabwe border, impounding L Kariba; completed in 1959; height 128 m/420 ft; length 579 m/1900 ft. It has the capacity to generate 705 megawatts of hydroelectricity.

The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. 16.51222° S 28.74778° E The double curvature concrete arch dam was constructed between 1955 and 1959 at a cost of $135,000,000 for the first stage with only the Kariba South power cavern.

It is one of the largest dams in the world at 128 m high and 579 m long. Lake Kariba, the reservoir created by the dam, extends for 280 km with a storage capacity of 180 km³.

The creation of the reservoir forced resettlement of about 57,000 Tonga people living along the Zambezi in both Zambia and Zimbabwe. But the people resettled for the project had no such "rescue" effort, and were forced to leave their homes and fertile lands that had been under cultivation for hundreds of years. (http://209.200.101.189/publications/csq/csq-article.cfm?id=971) A 2005 book, "Deep Water" by Jacques Leslie (http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/5/Vanderbilt.asp) focused on the plight of the people resettled by the dam, and found the situation little changed.

In a quest to restore their lives and find justice, the Tonga formed their own advocacy group in 2000, the Basilwizi Trust (http://www.basilwizi.org.zw/). Basilwizi sees itself as a culmination of numerous efforts by the affected people to be heard by the government authorities.

In 2005, Basilwizi conducted extensive research on the socio-economic status of the Tonga people. Their report states: “The Gwembe Tonga on the Zambian side and the Zimbabwean Tonga are one; but due to separation brought about by the dam, they are now considered different people. Some, especially on the Zimbabwean side, no longer speak Tonga, the language of their ancestors, due to dominance of other indigenous languages.” Basilwizi is now undertaking new activities to revive the Tonga culture, in order to preserve the language and to build local access to education.

The group is also calling on the World Bank and other parties involved in building the dam to bring justice to the Tonga. “Calls for reparation, coming many years after the displacement of these people from the land of their ancestors have not yielded any significant benefits,” observes Basilwizi in its recent report. “Such compensation could be in monetary terms, decommissioning of the dam, official recognition of past and current injustices suffered, or complete restoration of the ecosystems. The Tonga are … trying to find solutions to their predicament and to rise out of the imposed poverty.