Kafue

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Kafue
Kafue.jpg
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Kafue
Location in Zambia
Coordinates: 15°46′S28°11′E / 15.767°S 28.183°E / -15.767; 28.183
Country Flag of Zambia.svg Zambia
Province Lusaka Province
District Kafue District
Elevation
3,307 ft (1,008 m)
Population
 (2010)
  City219,000
   Urban
131,293
Climate Cwa

Kafue is a town on the T2 road in the Lusaka Province of Zambia and it lies on the north bank of the Kafue River, after which it is named. It is the southern gateway to the central Zambian plateau on which Lusaka and the mining towns of Kabwe and the Copperbelt are located. [1]

Contents

Site

Dam in 2023 in Kafue Lusaka Chipapa 38.jpg
Dam in 2023 in Kafue

Kafue is at the south-eastern foot of a range of granite hills rising 200 m and extending over an area of about 250 km², and occupies a shelf of land between the hills and the river, just high enough to avoid its annual flood. The town extends along some shallow valleys between the hills. A 400 m wide strip of small farms and gardens separates the town from a bend of the river which is about 300 m wide in the dry season and 1.3 km wide in the rainy season, sometimes inundating a floodplain 10 km wide on the opposite bank, which consequently is uninhabited save for a few small villages or farms on higher ground. [2]

History

During World War II, 25 Polish refugees escaping from German- and Soviet-occupied Poland, were admitted in Kafue in 1941. [3]

The Kafue River's 50 km wide floodplain, the Kafue Flats, is a 240 km long east-west barrier to road and rail connections between the centre of the country and the south. Kafue lies at the eastern end of the floodplain where the river enters the Kafue Gorge and flows down the Zambezi Escarpment into the middle Zambezi rift valley. [2] Consequently, it's strategically located at the only place where north-south road and rail can easily cross the Kafue River and squeeze through the gap between floodplain and escarpment. The Kafue Railway Bridge on the Lusaka–Livingstone line is at the south end of the town, and the Kafue Bridge 9 km to south-east carries one of the busiest sections of the T2 road across the river and brings it through the town, from where it continues 50 km north to Lusaka. [2] In the other direction the road connects to the Zimbabwe border at the Chirundu Bridge, and the main southern highway to Livingstone, Botswana and Namibia branches off it just south of the Kafue Bridge. [4]

The river is not used for commercial water transport. To the west it is too shallow and meandering and does not go near any centres of population, to the east is not navigable due to the Kafue Gorge and dam. However, subsistence fishing and recreational boating and sports fishing takes place on a 60 km stretch of the river above the dam. [1]

Population

According to the 2010 Zambia Census of Population and Housing, Kafue has a total population of 219,000 of which 108,939 are males and 110,061 are females. [5]

Religion

Among people aged 15 years and above, 73.11% are Protestant, 11.08% belong to other religions, and 15.80% are not affiliated with any religion. [5]

Industry

Agriculture and fishing are the traditional occupations of the area, and a commercial farming area extends along the edge of the Kafue Flats for 35 km north-west of the town. Commercial fishing operations of any size are limited to fish farming. Kafue has a larger proportion of manufacturing industries compared to most of the towns outside the Copperbelt Province.The Town has an industrial estate with housing and services called Kafue Estates. The industries in Kafue include; [5]

Other industries in or near the town:

Kafue Bulk Water Supply Project (KBWSP)

Kafue Bulk Water Supply Project (KBWSP) [8] [9]
Estimated CostFunded byProject DetailsConstruction

Start

Commercial

Operation Date

US$ 150.0 millionEXIM Bank of China and

Zambian Government to contribute

US$ 13.8 million (ZMW 225.0 million)

50 million Litres per Day

Water treatment plant, 66 kilometre treated water main pipeline from Kafue to Lusaka and a booster pump station in Chilanga.

July 2022TBA

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References

  1. 1 2 Camerapix: "Spectrum Guide to Zambia." Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.
  2. 1 2 3 Google Earth accessed 2007.
  3. Wróbel, Janusz (2003). Uchodźcy polscy ze Związku Sowieckiego 1942–1950 (in Polish). Łódź: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. p. 137. ISBN   978-83-7629-522-0.
  4. Terracarta/International Travel Maps, Vancouver Canada: "Zambia, 2nd edition", 2000
  5. 1 2 3 Zambia Statistics accessed 20 July 2013.
  6. "UNIVERSAL MINING AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LTD".
  7. "Lawrence Sikutwa and Associates Limited".
  8. solwezitoday (27 July 2022). "k22bn-supplementary-budget-parley-approves". solwezitoday.com. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  9. solwezitoday (30 July 2022). "hh-launches-50-million-litters-per-day-kafue-water-project". solwezitoday.com. Retrieved 30 July 2022.