Osborne Dam
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| Osborne Dam | |
|---|---|
 Osborne Spillway | |
 Interactive map of Osborne Dam | |
| Official name | Osborne Dam |
| Location | Mutare |
| Coordinates | 18°45′59″S 32°29′08″E / 18.76639°S 32.48556°E |
| Construction began | 1991 |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Odzi River |
| Height | 66 metres |
| Length | 1007 metres |
| Reservoir | |
| Total capacity | 400 million cubic metres |
| Catchment area | 1392 km² |
| Surface area | 2600 ha |
The Osborne Dam site on the Odzi River, Zimbabwe, was identified in the 1950s by the planning engineers of the Ministry of Water. Cored drilling investigations on the two possible alignments were completed in the 1960s. After the completion of Mazvikadei dam [1985–'88] with Italian financial aid, further funding became available for the project and when the 10 000 hectares of potential irrigable land was identified downstream the project was approved in 1989 by the multi-ministry irrigation committee of the Zimbabwe Government.
Osborne Dam is an earth embankment dam, creating a reservoir with a surface area of 2,600 hectares, storing 400,000 megalitres on the Odzi River, a tributary of the Save River, in Zimbabwe The catchment area is 1,392 km² the embankment is 66 metres high, crest length 1,007 metres and the volume of earth in the embankment is 5.1 million cubic metres. The spillway is the "drop inlet" type with a crest radius of 15.7 metres, a 6-metre diameter shaft and conduit conveys the overflow to the flip bucket. The catchment area of 2,400 square kilometres stretches up to the source of the Odzi river in the high rainfall area just south of Juliasdale. The construction was financed with aid supplied by the Italian Government, the main contractor was Salini Costuttori SpA, with local subcontractors K.W.Blasting doing tunneling and hard excavation.[1] It is operated to supply water to irrigation schemes in Chimanimani and Chipinge districts.[2]
