Kafue is a town in the

Lusaka Province Lusaka Province is one of the ten provinces of Zambia. Its capital is Lusaka, which is also the national capital. It is the smallest province in Zambia, with an area of 21,896 km2. Lusaka is also Zambia's most populated and most densely ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

and it lies on the north bank of the

Kafue River The Kafue River is the longest river lying wholly within Zambia at about long. Its water is used for irrigation and for hydroelectric power. It is the largest tributary of the Zambezi, and of Zambia's principal rivers, it is the most centra ...

, after which it is named. It is the southern gateway to the central Zambian

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

on which

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was ab ...

and the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

towns of

Kabwe Kabwe is the capital of the Zambian Central Province and the Kabwe District, with a population estimated at 202,914 at the 2010 census. Named Broken Hill until 1966, it was founded when lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902. Kabwe also ...

and the

Copperbelt The Copperbelt () is a natural region in Central Africa which sits on the border region between northern Zambia and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is known for copper mining. Traditionally, the term ''Copperbelt'' includes the ...

are located.Camerapix: "Spectrum Guide to Zambia." Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996. It is located on the T2 Road ( Great North Road).

Site

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

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

s 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.Google Earth
accessed 2007.

Transport links

The Kafue River's 50 km wide

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

, the

Kafue Flats The Kafue Flats (locally called Butwa) are a vast area of swamp, open lagoon and seasonally inundated flood-plain on the Kafue River in the Southern, Central and Lusaka provinces of Zambia. They are a shallow flood plain 240 km long and a ...

, 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

where the river enters the

Kafue Gorge Kafue is a town 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 Copper ...

and flows down the

Zambezi Escarpment Zambezi Escarpment is a name used for the escarpments forming both sides of the rift valley or graben in which lie the middle Zambezi river and Lake Kariba. They are fault scarps, rising 500 to 600 m higher than the lake or river, running from t ...

into the middle

Zambezi The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...

rift valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear dep ...

. 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 The Kafue Railway Bridge was built to carry the Livingstone to Lusaka railway line in what is now Zambia over the Kafue River in 1906. It is a steel girder truss bridge of 13 spans each of supported on concrete piers. It was built for Mashonaland ...

on the Lusaka–Livingstone line is at the south end of the town, and the

Kafue Bridge Kafue is a town 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 Copper ...

9 km to south-east carries one of the busiest sections of the Great North Road across the river and brings it through the town, from where it continues 50 km north to

. In the other direction the road connects to the

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

border at the

Chirundu Bridge The Chirundu Bridge now consists of two road bridges side by side across the Zambezi River between the small town of Chirundu, Zambia and the village of Chirundu, Zimbabwe. At this location around 65 km downstream from the Kariba Dam the ...

, and the main southern highway to Livingstone,

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

branches off it just south of the Kafue Bridge.Terracarta/International Travel Maps, Vancouver Canada: "Zambia, 2nd edition", 2000 The river is not used for commercial

water transport Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used throu ...

. 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.

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.Zambia Statistics
accessed 20 July 2013.

Religion

Among people aged 15 years and above, 73.11% are

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, 11.08% belong to other religions, and 15.80% are not affiliated with any

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

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; * Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (Agricultural

fertiliser A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

s) * Bata

Tannery Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

(shoe leather) - No longer operational. * Textiles - Kafue Textiles - No longer operational. * UNIVERSAL Mining and Chemical Industries Limited (UMCIL), Kafue integrated Iron and Steel plant (Direct Reduced Iron). Phase one of the project was completed in 2007 and is now fully operational, producing 7,000 tonnes of finished rolled iron and steel products per month for the local and regional markets. * Lee Yeast Zambia - The Sole manufacturer of baking yeast (and other baking products) in Zambia. * Alliance Ginnery Zambia - Cotton Ginning company. * Fens Zambia - Manufacturer of spray race equipment and commercial trailers. * Kafue River Cliff - A modern 4 star Hotel located on the banks of the Kafue River operated by the LSA group. Other industries in or near the town: *

Kafue National Park Kafue National Park is the largest national park in Zambia, covering an area of about 22,400 km² (similar in size to Wales or Massachusetts). It is one of the largest parks in Africa and is home to 152 different species of mammals. The park ...

- Zambia's oldest and largest national park * Kafue Fisheries Ltd was first established in 1981 with a five hectare project pilot scheme. Over the years, the project has grown to its present size of 60 hectare ponds and is situated in the centre of 1800 hectare wildlife and cattle scheme. The whole

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

system is based on an integrated pig and fish enterprise with annual production of

Tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...

exceeding 700 tonnes and 4000 pigs of the ‘heavy hog’ class. * Kafue Quarry produces

construction aggregate Construction aggregate, or simply aggregate, is a broad category of coarse- to medium-grained particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, recycled concrete and geosynthetic aggregates. Aggregates ...

for road building and general construction. The firm has been together with Nitrogen Chemicals and Kafue Textiles (no longer in operation) a source of employment for the district for a number of years. * Kafue Gorge Upper Power Station ( generation capacity) operated by the Zambia Electricity Supply Company (

ZESCO ZESCO (acronym for Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation Limited) is a state-owned power company in Zambia. It is Zambia's largest power company producing about 80% of the electricity consumed in the country. ZESCO represents Zambia in the So ...

) generates

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

downstream from the town, and at the end of the rainy season its

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

extends back to the town.

Kafue Bulk Water Supply Project (KBWSP)

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Lusaka Province