About the Project

In 2011, World Rowing and WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature, began an alliance to use rowing to educate and raise awareness about freshwater. In 2015, we launched the Kafue River & Rower Centre as a joint project to take action on the global freshwater issues that threaten our planet.

The site of the Kafue River & Rowing Centre is of utmost importance to the local WWF branch, WWF Zambia. It is situated to the South-East of the town of Kafue, adjacent to the Kafue River and is the perfect location for studying the demands on Zambia’s most important resource: water. It is also situated just 200 metres from a local school, which will use the rowing equipment as a part of their physical education programme.

In order to facilitate construction while fundraising is still on-going, the Centre has been divided into phases. The first phase is to establish a base at the Centre that enables simple education, research and rowing activities to start. The subsequent phases will aim to build more sophisticated facilities and greater capacity as the project develops and more funding comes onstream.

The end result will be an inspiring building constructed in modular format by a Zambian company. It will reflect the surroundings and local culture and provide a centre for research and rowing to the local community and schools; and it will be appropriate for the area, being low impact, lightweight and innovative.

This project is a unique opportunity for us to give back. World Rowing calls on all rowers, former and current, to ensure it can be built, fully-equipped and sustainably operated so that it can achieve its objectives for water research and rowing. Your support is critical.

We ask that rowers around the world make a donation towards this Centre. We want the whole world to know that rowers are serious in our commitment to Clean Water – not just for our own use, but for everyone’s benefit.

Because to help the Kafue is the help the world. 

Watch a complete narrated presentation of the project below.  

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Zoom in on Zambia

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How the Kafue plays a role in the Zambian economy 

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