{"id":85240,"date":"2023-10-21T22:20:23","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T20:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls"},"modified":"2023-10-22T01:48:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T23:48:35","slug":"world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls","title":{"rendered":"World heritage group clears $5bn dam near Victoria falls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>An agency of the United Nations has cleared Zambia and Zimbabwe to build a $5 billion hydropower dam downstream from Victoria Falls, a Unesco World Heritage Site, the authority overseeing its construction said.<\/p>\n

The 2 400 megawatt Batoka Gorge project, 47 kilometres from the world\u2019s largest waterfall, has been opposed by environmentalists because of the potential impact it would have on the cataract, a key tourist site for both countries, that spans the Zambezi River.<\/p>\n

Unesco \u201csent inspectors in 2022 after complaints by some environmentalists that the Batoka project was going to affect the Victoria Falls,\u201d Munyaradzi Munodawafa, chief executive officer of the Zambezi River Authority, said in an interview. They \u201clooked at the reports and our presentations and agreed that Batoka could go ahead\u201d at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee last month, he said.<\/p>\n

Construction of the 181-metre (594-foot) high wall and power plants by a group led by General Electric Co, and China\u2019s Power Construction had been expected to start in 2020 but was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and funding concerns. Both Zambia and Zimbabwe, who already share the Kariba hydropower facility further east on the Zambezi, at times have struggled to meet their power needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we are good to go\u201d said Munodawafa. \u201cWe are on solid ground and by end of next month, I will have an actual date of commencement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unesco didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The African Development Bank is the lead arranger for the financing of Batoka, which has been designed as a run-of-river project, meaning that there will be little storage of water behind the turbines, minimizing the impact on the Victoria Falls.<\/p>\n

Still, there are tensions over the project between Zambia and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

In June Peter Kapala, Zambia\u2019s energy minister, said his country plans to exit the agreement with GE and Power Construction because it was too expensive and a smaller plant could be more appropriate.<\/p>\n

Munodawafa also said the $130 million rehabilitation of a plunge pool below the wall of the Kariba dam, which holds back the world\u2019s biggest artificial reservoir, is expected to be completed by early 2025.<\/p>\n

Further downstream, in Mozambique, the AfDB is also advising on the $4.5 billion, 1 500-megawatt Mphanda Nkuwa hydropower project.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. An agency of the United Nations has cleared Zambia and Zimbabwe to build a $5 billion hydropower dam downstream from Victoria Falls, a Unesco World Heritage Site, the authority overseeing its construction said. The 2 400 megawatt Batoka Gorge project, 47 kilometres from the world\u2019s largest waterfall, has been opposed by environmentalists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":85238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":["post-85240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nWorld heritage group clears $5bn dam near Victoria falls - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An agency of the United Nations has cleared Zambia and Zimbabwe to build a $5 billion hydropower dam downstream from Vic ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World heritage group clears $5bn dam near Victoria falls\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An agency of the United Nations has cleared Zambia and Zimbabwe to build a $5 billion hydropower dam downstream from Vic ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-21T20:20:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-21T23:48:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/10\/sm_1697915642.258143.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"689\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"World heritage group clears $5bn dam near Victoria falls\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-21T20:20:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-21T23:48:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls\"},\"wordCount\":390,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/10\/sm_1697915642.258143.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zimbabwe\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/world-heritage-group-clears-5bn-dam-near-victoria-falls\",\"name\":\"World heritage group clears $5bn dam near Victoria falls - 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