Sedimentation in reservoirs - Tana river basin, Kenya. II – Hydrographic surveys of Kindaruma and Kamburu reservoirs in June/July 1981, with an analysis of the siltation rates since impoundment

Wooldridge, R. (1983) Sedimentation in reservoirs - Tana river basin, Kenya. II – Hydrographic surveys of Kindaruma and Kamburu reservoirs in June/July 1981, with an analysis of the siltation rates since impoundment. Technical Report. HR Wallingford.

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Abstract

A research project to develop methods of predicting rates of sediment deposition and distribution in tropical reservoirs is currently being undertaken at Hydraulics Research, Wallingford, using funds made available by the Overseas Development Administration of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The project involves data collection from sites in Kenya, Indonesia and the Philippines. A collaborative investigation was started in Kenya in 1980 to study thedistribution of sediment within two, and more recently three, reservoirs on the Tana River, and to monitor the transport of suspended sediment by rivers feeding these reservoirs. The collaborative organizations - the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority, the Ministry of Water Development and the East Africa Power and Lighting Co Ltd - are providing finances and staff to cover the Kenya end of the investigation. The first stage of the investigation was to produce a set of base data against which all future reservoir surveys will be compared. These data, which were abstracted from an aerial survey flown in 1965, are described in HR report OD 45. The report covers the second stage in which assessments are made of changes in reservoir volumes, following hydrographic surveys carried out in June/July 1981. The survey data are analysed in two ways in an attempt to estimate both the change in capacity of the reservoirs, and the volume of material eroded from the catchments. The analysis shows that over the period 1968-74, the volume of Kindaruma reservoir decreased at a rate of 8.9070 per year. Kamburu reservoir was then impounded and its volume dropped at a rate of 2.2% per year until 1981. The resulting analysis demonstrates that short-term changes in sediment volume can only be assessed if more information is available on the physical properties of the sediment and the reservoir inflow rates.

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