The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) today conducted commissioning tests for the sluice gates (floodgates) at Kariba Dam as rehabilitation works near completion.
Water plunged briefly to the newly reshaped plunge pool below for about 4 minutes.
Work started in 2019 and ZRA engineers are checking for quality and the possibility of any leaks by releasing amounts of water equivalent to that used to turn a turbine during power generation for three seconds.
In an update, ZRA planning officer Engineer Munesushe Mudzi said the tests were being undertaken to gauge the efficacy of the work undertaken over the past four years.
“Today (Friday), we were commissioning Sluice No 2 that we have been working on since 2019. The tests are part of quality checks that we do,” said Eng Mudzi.
“We have done the tests and we used 1500 cubic meters of water and in terms of power generation, this is similar to 3 seconds of turbines turning.”
The stop beams have to be tight when closed to ensure that no water passes through.
