Rehabilitation of Kariba dam wall to start soon

The Zambian and Zimbabwean governments will on Tuesday sign a works contract for the first component of the Kariba dam rehabilitation project. This contract will see the reshaping of the dam’s plunge pool and is being funded by the European Union, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the government of Sweden, together with the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), which operates, maintains and manages the Kariba dam on behalf of the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe.  The structural integrity of the 55-year-old, 128-m-high dam wall has been compromised over the years by erosion of the plunge pool, with the foundations chipped down to depths of up to 90 m beyond permissible levels through advanced alkali-silica reaction in the concrete.