Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls (Zambia/Zimbabwe)
The Committee noted that a proposal to construct a dam across the Batoka Gorge could flood some parts of this transfrontier World Heritage site, and that the Bureau had requested the Centre to contact the States Parties concerned and obtain more information on the proposed dam construction project.
The Director of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management of Zimbabwe has informed the World Heritage Centre that the dam to be built at the Batoka Gorge will flood up to the third gorge which is about 10 km inside the World Heritage site, but that he was of the view that this change in the ecology of the site will have minimum impacts. The Director has also informed the World Heritage Centre that his Department accepts this development project owing to its minimum impact and the fact that it will produce power under favourable environmental conditions, in contrast to the alternative of thermal power production. The representative of IUCN informed the Committee that there is opposition to the dam construction project in Zambia.
The Committee requested the Centre to co-operate with IUCN, and in particular with IUCN's Regional Office in Harare, Zimbabwe, to make an assessment of the proposal to construct a dam across the Batoka Gorge and submit a report to the seventeenth session of the Bureau.