#5- Dam(n)ing the Zambezi river

Figure 1. Kariba dam illustration by Haam Juhae

For this post I’d like to explore the consequences of hydropower dams on livelihoods and ecosystems. Promoted as a sustainable and economically beneficial development option, more and more dams were raised out of the ground in Sub-Saharan Africa, making up to 60% of its countries reliant on hydropower as their source of energy. 

In the case of the Zambezi river basin, it’s no different. 

While many economic activities within the basin use other sources of energy like oil and coal, they remain heavily dependent on the power generated by these dams. Unfortunately, these dams also come with their disadvantages, such as modifying the hydrological conditions to the point in which the ‘timing, magnitude, duration and frequency of seasonal flood pulses’ has changed. This is partly because more than 11% of the mean annual flow evaporates from reservoirs in the basin.

The Kariba Dam

As briefly mentioned in my previous post, Kariba Dam is one of the main hydropower plants located in the Zambezi river basin and has the largest reservoir in the world, with a storage capacity of 181billion ㎥ (Figure 1). Designed by the civil engineer Andre Coyne, the dam was built in the late 1950s as “one of the largest late colonial development projects”, and since then has become an integral component of Zambia’s and Zimbabwe’s energy security. The northern station in Zambia can generate 1,080 MW of energy, whereas Zimbabwe’s southern station currently produces 750 MW, soon to be increased to 1,050 MW. Thus, this inexpensive and abundant source of energy was viewed as the region’s driver of modernity and economic growth by the British colonial forces as well as international benefactors. Even till this day, many more projects are being envisioned for the Zambezi river basin (Table 1). 

Yet, the question remains: does this type of infrastructure really further positive development?

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Despite the obvious benefit of supplying the area with 3 times the amount of electricity than before, the dam’s construction came with several drawbacks. Instead of having the envisioned ability to encourage social cohesion amongst the former territories of Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Southern Rhodesia, it solidified the realities of decolonization.

-   About 57000 indigenous Gwembe Tonga and Kore Kore peoples were forcefully displaced and thousands of animals deserted on islands. To put it plainly, the dam was built to benefit the nearby ‘white’ copper industry, all whilst neglecting the rural poor who have been identified as development refugees (Figure 2). Even now, 60 years later, descendants of the previously self-sufficient Tonga remain poverty-stricken and plagued by illegal drug production, smuggling, prostitution and poaching. Above all, local communities still aren’t at the receiving end of the dam’s supply of electricity. 

-   While some Gwembe Tonga benefited from the newly built roads from Lusaka to the dam (younger men started partaking in entrepreneurial practises in the growing markets around Kariba), it also meant that foreign workers began flooding in. Thus, once the fishing restrictions on Lake Kariba were abolished, local fishers were easily overpowered by their ‘better-capitalised competitors’.

-   Appallingly disguised as the collaboration between white and black desires, the racial politics of the Central African Federation not only reinforced former settler power relations, but also imposed western ideals on local communities, wanting them to turn into a ‘western-like society’. Nothing else to say but: deeply rooted racism at play.

In fact Tischler  sums it up quite nicely: 

‘modernisation and nation-building created specific entanglements between the colonial and postcolonial period, making independence a much less momentous break’

Figure 2. ‘The Tonga, the Kariba Dam, and the Angry God”- an image depicting a group of men from the indigenous Tonga community.

Other than than its social impacts, the dam influenced the ecology of the Zambezi basin:

-   The Mana floodplain, which is of great importance to the Mid-Zambezi Valley’s wildlife, has suffered since the 1970s under the impacts of the changing flood regime. Due to accumulating silt in the reservoir and stabilising river flow, the dam increasingly disrupts the ecological dynamism of the river. 

-   The increasing rate of erosion also doesn’t do the river banks any favours: about 1030ha were eroded between 1954 and 1973. Although erosion occurred prior to the dam’s construction, Guy’s research showed that this former natural process has since then increased. 

Hence, I can confidently say that this dam did not take off-site impacts into consideration, leaving local communities and wildlife to fend for themselves. However, after exploring the dam’s highly colonial past, I’d like to move onto the current struggle it faces. For that, continue reading my next post.