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'It can't be done', was the original verdict
when the possibility of building a dam to harness the Zambesi
was first raised. But in 1954 a committee decided it could
and would be done, and today a dam 420 ft high, 1,900 ft
long and carrying a 40-ft roadway links Southern and Northern
Rhodesia. It will bring power to vast areas of Central
Africa.
Frank Clements, himself a Rhodesian, tells the
story from the time of Livingstone to the present day:
he describes how practical difficulties and ancient superstition
were overcome; how roads were cut through the apparently
impassable forest so that materials for the dam and the
giant power installations, and workers of all nationalities,
could be carried to the site; and how one of the most primitive
African tribes was transferred from what is now the bed
of a lake some 2,000 sq. miles in extent, to a new home. |