Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mal ...
in
Niger State
Niger is a state in the North Central region of Nigeria and the largest state in the country. Niger state has three political zones, zone A,B and C. The state's capital is at Minna. Other major cities are Bida, Kontagora and Suleja. It was ...
of Central
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
. Construction of the dam was carried out by Impregilo (a consortium of Italian Civil Engineering Contractors) to designs by Joint Consultants,
Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works acr ...
and Nedeco, and began in 1964 to be completed in 1968. The total cost was estimated at US$209 million (equivalent to about US$ billion in dollars), with one-quarter of this amount used to resettle people displaced by the construction of the dam and its reservoir, Kainji Lake.
Dimensions
Kainji Dam extends for about , including its
saddle dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...
, which closes off a
tributary valley
Side valleys and tributary valleys are valleys whose brooks or rivers flow into greater ones.
Upstream, the valleys can be classified in an increasing order which is equivalent to the usual orographic order: the tributaries are ordered from th ...
. The primary section across the outflow to the Niger is . Most of the structure is made from earth, but the centre section, housing the
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is 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 renewable sources combined an ...
turbine
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating ...
s, was built from concrete. This section is high. Kanji Dam is one of the longest dams in the world.
Power station
The dam was designed to have a generating capacity of ; however, only 8 of its 12 turbines have been installed, reducing the capacity to . The dam generates electricity for all the large cities in Nigeria. Some of the electricity is sold to the neighbouring country of
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languagesKainji Lake measures about long and about at its widest point, and supports irrigation and a local
fishing industry
The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...
. In 1999, uncoordinated opening of floodgates led to local flooding of about 60 villages.
See also
*
List of hydropower stations in Africa
This is a list of articles listing power stations around the world by countries or regions. A power station (also referred to as a generating station, power plant, powerhouse or generating plant) is an industrial place for the generation of electr ...