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DAM-L Floods Should Prompt Dam Rethink : UN IRIN <fwd>
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Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 09:20:07 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
Subject: Good Moz flood article/LS
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Floods Should Prompt Dam Rethink
UN Integrated Regional Information Network (Nairobi)
March 9, 2001
Posted to the web March 8, 2001
Johannesburg
Behind the natural flood disaster that has swamped central Mozambique
and threatens far more damage is a human failure of management and
coordination between the dams along the Zambezi river, according to a
regional water expert.
The giant Kariba dam in Zambia and Mozambique's Cahora Bassa "do not
talk to each other", Brian Davies at the University of Cape Town told
IRIN on Thursday. They have failed to scientifically manage the flow
of water along the 258 km stretch of the Zambezi that could have
helped avert the current crisis in which both dams are full, and are
now being forced to discharge water into an already flooded river
system.
"There is no flow management. The dams have operated at minimal
discharge on the mythical understanding that the more water there is
in the dam the more money there is in the bank through the generation
of hydro-power," said Davies, who worked on the initial ecological
assessment of Cahora Bassa 25 years ago. "The people of Mozambique
are at the butt end of this dreadfully managed system."
What is needed instead is a coordinated Zambezi river basin scheme
that would allow dam engineers to release water ahead of the wet
season, to leave enough room in the reservoirs to cope with increased
water levels during the rains, Davies said. In the current crisis,
Kariba is at peak capacity of 85 billion mt of water and Cahora Bassa
at 63 billion mt. An accident such as a wall crack or a cascade of
water over the lip of the reservoirs due to the intense pressure on
the ageing dams would have "catastrophic" consequences, the ecologist
warned.
The Zambezi river basin in Mozambique is a naturally occurring flood
plain. In the past, human habitation patterns took flooding into
account. When the waters subsided, people would move in to plant in
the rich soils, and shift to higher ground when the floods returned,
Davies said. But the construction of Cahora Bassa has meant that
communities have settled much closer to the river.
Managed water releases ahead of the January to March rains would have
an impact on settlements along the Zambezi, Davies acknowledged.
"People will have to start changing their patterns of living. I know
it is a difficult decision to take and would require enormous
infrastructural aid," he said. But "one of these days there will be a
cyclonic event" that the full dams would be unable to cope with.
"The route to go is to develop a communication strategy using present
technology to, in tandem, draw down dam levels and plan for upstream
flooding. That's what SADC (the Southern African Development
Community) should be doing." Davies added: "Once the (current) aid
programme has rescued these people in central Mozambique we need
capacity building for a Zambezi river basin plan, that bangs
engineers' heads together."
--
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network <'})))>><
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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