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Oliver Kazunga Acting Business Editor
THE African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved $70 million for the rehabilitation of Kariba Dam plunge pool and spillway.
The regional financier said approval of the funding was made on December 15 during its board of directors’ ordinary sitting held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

The rehabilitation project at Kariba hydro plant, which requires about $125 million and an additional $169 million for refurbishing the dam wall’s six spill gates, is expected to begin early next year.

Apart from AfDB, other development partners such as the World Bank have shown interest in funding the project.

“The board of directors of African Development Bank group, during its ordinary sitting . . . approved a proposed African Development Fund loan of $39 million to Zambia, and a grant of $12 million from the bank’s Transition Support Facility and a grant of $24 million from the African Development Fund Regional Operations envelope to Zimbabwe for the Kariba Dam Rehabilitation Project,” said AfDB.

It said the project, which involves the rehabilitation of the Kariba Dam infrastructure by reshaping the plunge pool and rehabilitating the spillway, would be undertaken to dissipate energy from the spilled water thereby reducing the energy on impact and hence bedrock erosion which could undermine the dam foundations, leading to dam failure.

“The project will rehabilitate the spillway gates to avoid possible jamming in the open or closed positions both of which would result in dam failure and catastrophic regional loss of lives, livelihoods, and billions worth of assets and power.”

The value-added of AfDB in the project was being done as part of the donor group to ensure adequate financing of the project, as well as helping in the design of additional technical and social investigations to assure the technical, social integrity and economic soundness of the rehabilitation approach.

The financial institution said it had been able to leverage internal resources under the Transition Support Facility to fund Zimbabwe’s contribution to the project costs when no other financier was in a position to assist.

This, it said, demonstrated its strong commitment to being a development partner to countries in situations of fragility and transition, contribute to mitigation of the risk to fragility, ensuring human safety to both Zambia and Zimbabwe and the region as well as supporting the regional integration agenda.

Meanwhile, AfDB is contributing to the creation of work synergy between the Southern African Power Pool and the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) to enhance regional integration.

The project will include a capacity-building component which includes training of technical staff of the ZRA and skills transfer through the supervision engineer and panel of experts.

“The programme will strengthen ZRA’s emergency preparedness plan and also includes a programme for improved community emergency preparedness,” said AfDB.