Sustainable Catchment Management: Assessment of Sedimentation of Masinga Reservoir And its Implication on the Dam’s Hydropower Generation Capacity
Martin M. Bunyasi, Simon M. Onywere, Mathew K. Kigomo

Abstract
Masinga dam is the largest Dam of the Seven Forks Hydro-Electric Power (HEP) project with a design capacity of 1,560 million m3. It has a full operation surface area of 125 Km2 and was commissioned in 1981. Masinga catchment covers about 6,255 Km2. Roles of the dam include HEP generation with an installed capacity of 40 MW, regulating water flow into subsequent dams and controlling downstream flooding. However loss of water storage capacity due to increased dam sedimentation associated with watershed activities, river characteristics, and reservoir design threatens its functionality. The research extensively utilized both primary and secondary data. Data analysis methods included the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), descriptive and inferential statistics. Masinga dam had lost about 215.26 M m3 (13.59 %) of its design storage capacity to sedimentation by 2011. This informed the need to develop an effective catchment management strategy to improve the dam’s sedimentation regime.

Full Text: PDF