Flooded Lake Kariba

The dam reservoir is known as Lake Kariba. The lake is 280km long and is 30km at its widest point. It is the third largest man-made lake in Africa, capable of holding up to 180km3 of water.

Although the potential benefits of the lake itself were not considered in the initial justification for the dam, Lake Kariba has yielded economic returns for Zimbabwe and Zambia, in terms of commercial fisheries, tourism, irrigation development and wildlife conservation.

In Zimbabwe, a buffer zone, 5km wide, has been created along the entire southern lakeshore as a recreational area. Seven regions bordering the lake are set aside as game reserves, safari parks and forestry areas.

However, in order to make way for the lake and the subsequent game reserves, tens of thousands of Tonga people were forcibly resettled to arid inland areas by the government. (see the forced relocation).

At the same time, “Operation Noah” was mounted to rescue animals from the flooding river. These animals were moved to the newly established game parks along the lake. Significantly, “Operation Noah” was highly publicised overseas, and completely overshadowed the resettlement of the Tonga people.

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