At the end of 2012 the Zambezi River Authority invited expressions of interest from companies interested in tendering for the development of the Batoka Gorge Hydro Electric Scheme, a joint initiative by the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe and supported with funding from the World Bank. Sources expect the project to commence this year and reach completion by 2019.
Details of the proposed dam design were summarised in the invitation document as being a 181m high gravity arch dam with two underground power stations carrying four 200 MW turbines and giving a total capacity of 1,600 MW.
The reservoir formed by the dam will be contained within the Batoka Gorge and is predicted to have a relatively small surface area of 26km2 and a water level of 762m above sea level. The location for the dam on the Zambezi River 54km downstream of the Victoria Falls is given as 18º 1’ S 26º 34’ E.
Zambezi River Authority chief executive officer, Engineer Munyaradzi Munodawafa, was reported by media sources as saying that the Batoka project was expected to have a positive socio-economic impact on people from the two countries. “We are looking at the economic benefit locals are going to derive from the project,” he was quoted as saying.
A few months prior to the announcement of the tender process an American hydrologist criticised the proposed plans for the Batoka Gorge Dam and Mphanda Nkuwa Dam (also on the Zambezi in Mozambique) for being based on archived hydrological data which had not been re-evaluated for potential climate change risks, including regional drought, reduced flows and increased risk of extreme flooding events. The original technical, legal and environmental feasibility studies were carried out in the early 1990s.
Zambia’s power utility managing director, Cyprian Chitun, said fresh technical and environmental studies will be conducted before the actual construction begins. “An expression of interest was tendered in the press to look for consultants to review the study that was conducted in 1992. We need to ensure that the feasibility study is brought up to speed,” local sources reported. ZRA public relations and communications manager, Elizabeth Karonga, confirmed the authority was waiting for a new updated Environmental Impact Assessment report before commencing construction of the dam.
In January 2013, ministers from Zambia and Zimbabwe met in Victoria Falls to discuss the development of the project.
FACTFILE: History of the Batoka Gorge Dam project
The first geological studies of the Batoka Gorge were undertaken in 1904 with the construction of the Victoria Falls Bridge and planning for the Victoria Falls Hydro Electric Scheme. The bridge was opened in 1905 but the power scheme was not realised until 1938.
The Batoka scheme was conceived in 1972 out of a study instituted by the Central African Power Corporation (predecessor of Zambezi River Authority). The 1972 report by Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners identified several sites on the Zambezi which would be potentially suitable for development as hydro electric schemes. These included Batoka Gorge, Devil’s Gorge, both upstream of Lake Kariba, and Mupata Gorge, downstream of Kariba. The 1981 Gibb report relocated the proposed dam site some 12km upstream, due to a mapping error. The current technical, legal and environmental feasibility studies were carried out in 1993.
Early in 2012 the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe agreed the settlement of outstanding debts relating to the Kariba project, clearing one of the last major obstacles to the Batoka project.
Read about the Batoka Gorge Dam in the March 2012 issue of the Zambezi Traveller:
Batoka Gorge Power Scheme Revisited
Read more on the Batoka Gorge Dam in the July 2012 issue of the Zambezi Traveller:
Batoka gorge dam one step closer
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