Power cuts: Rainy season and yet shortage of water at Kariba Dam

Kariba: Isn’t it ironic!

The country has recently received heavy rains but there are reports of water shortage at the main Kariba hydro electricity plant compelling the the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) to suspend electricity generation until January 2023,Express Mail Zim can report.

ZRA manages both Zambia and Zimbabwe hydro electricity generation at Kariba Dam.

Express Mail Zim gleaned a letter from ZRA directed to the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) and it stated that the Kariba South hydro power station had exhausted it’s 2022 water allocation and that the Kariba Dam’s usable storage was only 4.6 percent full.

“The Zambezi River Authority is left with no choice but to firmly guide that generation activities at the South Bank Power Station are wholly suspended henceforth until January 2023 when a further review of the substantive hydrological outlook at Kariba will be undertaken,” read part of the letter.

“With the current performance of the 2022/2023 rainfall season in the Kariba Lower Catchment where the river flows are yet to improve and the associated inflows from the Upper Kariba Catchment, which will only influence any potential increase in the Lake Level at Kariba during the later part of the first quarter of 2023, it is highly unlikely that there will be any reasonable inflow augmentation in the remaining period of the year 2022, giving little or no chance of improvement in the reservoir storage levels during the remaining period of the year 2022 and going into the first quarter of the year 2023,” further read the communique.

Kariba South has an installed capacity of 1,050 megawatts but has been producing well below that due to claims of low water levels in the dam.

Power outages have become the order of the day in the country and it has affected productivity in the industries.

Football lovers have also been affected as they have to watch less of this year’s edition of the World Cup going on in Qatar.

Citizens have resorted to adopting solar systems which is pricey for the ordinary person due to the salary erosion that has been triggered by the hyperinflationary environment.

A Zambian political analyst Joseph Kalimbwe dismissed ZRA’s water shortage claim and submitted that Lusaka was enjoying electricity generation from the same Kariba Dam.

“Its rainy season ,the Kariba Dam is full. We have full electricity generation this side- perhaps with some issues in certain areas .But unless there is another Kariba ,I don’t see why others are claiming and telling people their people that the dam is empty,” he tweeted in apparent reference to the incessant power outages in Harare.

Kalimbwe is a Zambian politician at the ruling United Party for National Development of Hakainde Hichilema, author and activist.

Previously, he was president of the African Union youth simulation in 2014 and president of the student representative council of the University of Namibia and he is vocal on issues affecting Southern African countries.