Kafue Gorge Dam

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The Kafue Dam ( Kafue Gorge Dam ) of the eponymous river in Zambia serves the power generation and irrigation. The initial capacity of the hydropower plant was 600 MW, since the expansion 1972 is 900 MW. The river carries on an annual average an amount of water of 280 m³ / s

From the water flow are:

  • 215 m³ / s of electricity ( ZESCO ),
  • 8.3 m³ / s, the irrigation of state sugar cane fields (Zambia Sugar Company ),
  • 2.4 m³ / s, the irrigation of private sugar cane fields,
  • 4.5 m³ / s of industry and private households (Lusaka Urban District Council )
  • 25.0 m³ / s the ecologically necessary constant flow.

The Kafue Dam is involved because of his own lack of free space in a system of several dams. These include the upstream Itezhitezhi Dam in Kafue National Park, which is intended in addition to a power generation of 80 MW with its storage capacity of 4,925 million cubic meters for the continuous influx of Kafue Dam, and in the planning stages, the Kafue Dam downstream Lower - Kafue gorge dam, which is to use the remaining 200 m height difference to generate electricity. Are planned 750 MW. The Advised Start of construction is 2008.

The construction of dams on the Kafue has political causes. Zambia wanted to be independent in the energy of the Kariba Dam, which was then shared it with the white Rhodesia. Since the extraction of copper is very energy intensive, Zambia feared for his government revenues.

About the size of the water area of the Kafue dam is Unklarkeit. The area is much smaller than that of the neighboring Itezhitezhi Reservoir, which has an area 340-370 km ². The values ​​given in existing sources 340 km ², 809 km ² or around 1000 km ² can not vote. The actual water surface, according to satellite image could be about 20 km ².

See also:

  • List of dams in the world
  • Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation
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