Engineering the Katse Dam in South Africa
Engineering the Katse Dam in South Africa
Lesotho, a neighboring country of South Africa is facing some problems in the construction of the Katse dam. This dam will be the highest superdam in Africa (185 m tall), it is being constructed to benefit the city of Johannesburg in South Africa, which has 6 million inhabitants, since it does not have enough water to supply its needs.
The construction of the Katse superdam will have some very important advantages, it will provide Johannesburg with the water it needs allowing the city to progress in relation to mining and the most important, providing drinking water to the population, this would better health and the level of life. At the same time the Katse dam will produce a big amount of electricity which is needed in lots of places in the zone, this electricity will be transported North in order to carry energy wherever needed. Another important advantage is the creation of seven thousand new jobs in a country with a high unemployment rate which would help improve the difficult economic situation of it, also the help that South Africa has promised (35,000,000) will better the conditions of people in Lesotho supporting the development of this country. People who will also be benefited, live in squatter camps because they do not have now drinking water and have to fetch it from a sharing tap, with the dam they will have drinking water in their homes.
Together with all these important advantages, the construction of the Katse Dam will bring crucial disadvantages that will affect a lot of people in the area since the Senqu river valley will be flooded. This will change their lives: they will lose their houses and fields, their cattle will not have grass to eat and they will not be able to cross the valley for more grass, children will not be able to go to school at the other side of the river; also these people are not being informed on what the future of the zone will be and what help they will receive. These people only understand the losses knowing that most of the water that the dam will produce can’t be used by them, they feel the same about the electricity that the dam is going to produce. Another big disadvantage is the effect of the dam in the environment since it will flood a natural...