Open AccessCahora Bassa Dam & the Delusion of Development
Author(s) -
Allen Isaacman
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
daedalus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1548-6192
pISSN - 0011-5266
DOI - 10.1162/daed_a_01875
Subject(s) - hydroelectricity , megaproject , riparian zone , dam removal , geography , floodplain , fishery , socioeconomics , engineering , sociology , ecology , paleontology , cartography , systems engineering , sediment , habitat , electrical engineering , biology
On December 6, 1974, two pressure-driven steel gates of the Cahora Bassa Dam, each weighing 220 tons, stopped the mighty Zambezi River in its course. After five years of toil by more than five thousand workers, the construction of Mozambique's Cahora Bassa was complete. At the time, it was the fifth-largest dam in the world. The hydroelectric dam was the last megaproject constructed in Africa during the turbulent era of decolonization. Through the voices of peasants and fishermen, displaced by the dam and the workers who built it, this essay analyzes the far-reaching social, political, and ecological consequences of Cahora Bassa. It also explores the devastating impact on riparian life downriver from the dam, which dramatically reduced the annual inundation of the floodplain that supported hundreds of thousands of farmers as well as fish, birds, and mammals.