The Mazowe Dam (or Mazoe Dam) is a dam on the

Mazowe River The Mazowe River (previously called Mazoe River) is a river in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The river rises north of Harare, flows north and then northeast, where it forms part of the border with Mozambique and joins the Luenha River, a tributary of ...

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 ...

, in the Iron Mask Hills about north of

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

. Constructed in 1920, it was built mainly to provide

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

for the Mazoe citrus estates. The dam was also home to the Hunyani Rowing Club and formerly provided facilities for St. Georges, Prince Edward, Arundel and other rowing clubs. It is the only major dam on the Mazowe River. The concrete dam was built by the British civil contractor Pauling & Co. and was raised by in 1961 by drilling into the foundation rock and installing post-tensioned tendons into the concrete. It is high and long, with overflow spillways on either side. It can hold 35 million cu m of water and has a surface area of 445 ha when full. However, prolonged drought in the first two decades of the 21st century has left the dam virtually empty, badly damaging local agricultural production. It had previously almost dried up in the droughts of 1984-85 and again in 1996, but even after the breaking of the most recent drought the dam has remained empty.

References

{{reflist Mazowe River Dams in Zimbabwe Dams completed in 1920 1920 establishments in the British Empire