Tokwe_Mukorsi_Dam
Tokwe Mukorsi Dam
Dam in Masvingo Province close to Ngundu
The Tokwe Mukosi Dam is a concrete-face rock-fill dam on the Tokwe River, just downstream of its confluence with the Mukosi River, about 72 kilometres (45 mi) south of Masvingo in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe.[1] It is 90.3 metres (296 ft) tall and creates a 1,750,000,000 m3 (1,420,000 acre⋅ft) reservoir, the largest inland dam in the country. The associated hydroelectric power station has a 12 megawatts (16,000 hp) installed capacity.[2]
Construction on the dam began in June 1998 but stalled in 2008. Salini Impregilo began to finish the dam in 2011. Heavy flooding in February 2014 caused a partial failure on 4 February, on the downstream face of the dam.[3][4] By late February the dam had not been fully breached but the unplanned rising reservoir behind the dam caused evacuations upstream.[5] Both upstream and downstream, over 20,000 people were evacuated.[6] Construction of the dam was suspended in June 2014 due to a lack of funding.[7][8] In May 2016 the government released $35 million to Salini Impregilio[9] to enable the Italian contractor resume construction work that stopped two years ago owing to payment problems.[10] The Dam was eventually completed in December 2016 and commissioned in May 2017.[11]
