The Ngonye Falls are on the Zambezi river in the Western Province of Zambia.
The site is adjacent to a new all weather road that provides access to the borders of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. A new bridge downstream of the falls links Sesheke to Mongu.
The site is 2 hours by air from Zambia’s capital city Lusaka. There is an airstrip 5km from the project site.
It is also 110km from a major node on the SAPP electricity transmission network.
At Ngonye Falls the Zambezi splits into a number of channels and
drops over a series of falls and rapids more than 1km wide.
Below the falls the river flows in a deep, narrow gorge cut into
sandstone.
Electricity will be generated by diverting some of the river flow into a 3km long canal to a powerhouse in the gorge downstream. The water will drive turbines which in turn will drive the generator units.
The Ngonye Falls mark the southern extent of the Barotse Floodplains on the upper Zambezi River.
The floodplains dominate the hydrology of the Zambezi river by storing rainfall from the upper catchment and slowly releasing it into the lower river.
