THERESA KALENGA
Lusaka
ZAMBEZI River Authority (ZRA) has announced that excavation of the plunge pool, a key milestone in the reshaping sub-project of the Kariba Dam Rehabilitation Project (KDRP), has been successfully completed.
The plunge pool reshaping works contract, supervised by ZRA with Swiss company Gruner Stucky as engineer, is being financed through a grant from the European Union (EU).
The Ministry of Finance and National Planning contracted French firm Razel-Bec as the contractor, which commenced works in May 2017.
“In total, about 300,100m³ (about 750,000 tonnes) of rock have been excavated through meticulous drilling and controlled blasting, coupled with the stabilisation of 20,000m² of slopes using anchors and shotcrete,” ZRA said in a statement.
The authority said while the excavation works are now 100 percent complete, the overall project is now 93 percent complete.
“In total, 550,000m3 of water (99 percent of the plunge pool volume) have been pumped out of the 80m deep plunge pool,” ZRA said. “Of note is the fact that despite the high-risk nature of the project, no adverse environmental, health and safety standards have been violated nor fatalities recorded thus far.”
ZRA will now focus on strengthening of the geological fault zone that is located immediately downstream of the dam…https://enews.daily-mail.co.zm/welcome/home
