Dammable conduct
Sir: Senior partner Mr G.H. Coates of British clam designers Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners reacted sharply (Letters, 27 August) to columnist Rowlinson Carter's report (Diary, 13 August) on current Zam- bezi riverside chat on the `collapse' of Kariba dam wall.
One of the reasons Coates gives for refuting the story is unrelated to principles of dam design. He fears `the impact such misrepresentations of the facts could have on the community downstream of the dam'. While an appealing idea — thousands of rural folk in the most remote areas of Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, sit- ting under baobabs reading The Spectator and reacting — it is, as Coates accused Car- ter, 'a misrepresentation of the facts'.
Besides, in Zimbabwe only up-streamers read The Spectator.
Felicity Wood
4 Lawson Avenue, Milton Park, Harare, Zimbabwe
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