Hydro-Management on Lake Chicamba in Mozambique
Improving multi-use reservoir management with forecasts

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Principle 1: Goals
Sr Filipe Pereira is a dam-operator for the Chicamba Dam in central Mozambique. He has the authority to raise the floodgates in order to release water from the dam. There are a number of competing goals for managing the Chicamba reservoir. On the one hand, maximizing the water retained behind the dam serves the needs of the fishing community on the lakeshore, as well as water supplies for irrigation and domestic use downstream, and hydropower generation throughout the dry season. On the other hand, in order to minimize flood risk, dam levels should be kept low so that if rains are heavy they will have capacity to absorb the excess flows without emergency releases.