Kafulata Dam Completed, Farmers To Have Year Around Access To Irrigation Water.
By Kalata News
Lusaka,May, 2025 – AFTER 13 years, the Kafula Dam project has this May, 2025 been finally completed and commissioned by President Hakainde Hichilema.
Commissioning the project in May this year, President Hakainde Hichilema said the Kafulafuta Water Dam, is a symbol of long-term investment in the Zambian people, the farming community and the residents of the copperbelt.
Stretching 80 meters in height with a holding capacity of 125 million cubic meters, the Kafulafuta Dam is key to unlocking year-round agricultural production, as the dam will store the much needed water for year around irrigation, thereby supporting Zambia’s goal of producing 4 million metric tons of maize annually.
Coming from a debilitating drought that saw the country drop its annual maize production from 3.5 million metric tonnes of maize to 1.5 million metric tonnes leading to the country declaring a food crisis emergency and seeking imports from neighbouring countries.
The dam site is located in Ibenga area of Masaiti District of the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. It lies 50km west of Ndola City. The site is within Her Royal Highness Chieftainess Malembeka and His Royal Highness Senior Chief Mushili.
This project involved the construction of a reservoir dam at Kafulafuta with a 125 million cubic meter storage capacity, a water intake pumping station, a midway booster pumping station, an independent water supply system in Mupenggui region, a transmission main line from the dam to Ndola, and waterlines from the Kafulafuta dam to Msayiti (V.), Luanshya and Ndola water works.
It also involves the upgrading and reconstruction of a city pipe network, the procurement of domestic water meters and regional water meters, and resettlement engineering activities. The project was expected to create 3,000 jobs and improve water access and quality for between 700 thousand to 1 million people in the Ndola, Luanshya and Masaiti districts.
It began in June, 2013, when a memorandum of understanding (MOU was signed between China National Complete Engineering Corporation (CNCEC) — a subsidiary of CMEC with the Government of Zambia for water supply projects in Copperbelt Province.
One of these projects was the Kafulafuta Water Supply System Project.
Three years later in July, 2016, Bank of China and Standard Chartered signed a $449,090,629.71 syndicated (EPC+F) loan agreement with CNCEC for the Kafulafuta Water Supply System Project.
The loan was provided in two separate tranches and backed by a sovereign repayment guarantee from the Government of Zambia’s Ministry of Finance & National Planning (MOFNP).
As part of the first ($381,727,035.28) tranche, Bank of China contributed approximately $332 million and Standard Chartered contributed approximately $50 million.
Standard Chartered also provided the second tranche worth $67.3 million with a 4-year maturity. The proceeds of these two loan tranches were used to finance 100% of the cost of a $449,090,629.71 commercial (EPC) contract between Zambia’s Ministry of Local Government and Housing with China National Complete Engineering Corporation (CNCEC), which was signed in February 2016.
This loan tranche has a 15-year maturity.
Formal project implementation began earnestly in August 2017 and in September 2018, Edgar Lungu, President of Zambia at that time, attended the project’s groundbreaking ceremony, and he visited the project two years later.
Built by POWERCHINA this ambitious project involved building an enormous dam that has the capacity to store up to an impressive 125 million cubic meters of water. In addition to constructing the dam, POWERCHINA will create a water intake pumping station and a mid-route pressurization pumping station. The project also includes the installation of water pipelines that will connect the dam to four water plants, upgrading the urban pipe network, and acquiring user and regional water meters.
During the almost five-year construction, POWERCHINA used its advanced technologies to overcome many difficulties, ensuring the project’s progress.
Built not without any challenges, the Kafulafuta Dam Project suffered from delayed disbursement of funds leading to work stoppage several times. This allowed for vandals to have a field day picking whatever pipes and materials they could lay their hands on.
While the project had reached between 55 to 60 per cent completion, CNCEC notified the Zambian Government that it was halting work on the project due to overdue payments, which would leave 450 employees and 50 subcontractors out of work.
Kafubu Water and Sanitation Company (KWSC) Director of Engineering Bernard Phiri reported that the stalled project was being affected by rampant vandalism and theft. Valves and other water installations from the project site were reportedly stolen and vandalized.
The project was originally scheduled for completion in January 2021.
Relocation of Affected Persons by the Project
The project constructed 44 houses for the blind and disabled people that had been resettled to pave way for development of a $450 million Kafulafuta Dam project in Masaiti district in Copperbelt province has neared completion.
Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company (KWSC) Planning and Development Manager, Paul Billima, says the houses are mostly for those that had been displaced from the government run Blind Centre in the district.
Mr Bilima further said the 44 houses are part of over 250 houses that the contractor, China Complete Corporation, have been built for people as part of compensation for their relocation since the Dam project was launched in the district.
He said the company expects to move all the affected people into the new houses before works commence on the Dam project along Kafulafuta River.
In an interview with the Mast Newspapers, Chieftainess Malembeka, one of the traditional leaders in the district, said of the project, “Uplifting the living standards of people is important in national development, the dam will bring about immense development in my Chiefdom,” she says.
In the same Mast interview Jane Kalesha, a 56-year-old resident, feels that the project has come at a right time and will immensely benefit the community.
She says the project will help farmers in the district to grow enough crops not only for consumption but for export into DRC.
She is optimistic that smallscale farmers will benefit massively through irrigation system.
The district whose main economic stay is farming has a total of 18,733 smallscale farmers.
The traditional leaders further hailed the bilateral relationship between Zambia and China, which she said are bearing fruits.
“China is a best friend of Zambia since time in memorial,” Chieftainess Malembeka said.
