Lake Kariba half full

Sat, 20 May 2017 10:57:55 +0000

By BENNIE MUNDANDO 

WATER levels on Lake Kariba have risen to 51 percent as opposed to 28 percent which was obtaining in the second week of May last year, with water volume surging to 482.56 metres.

According to the latest update from the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), the lake level rose by 0.21 metres between 3rd and 9th May, 2107, due to the high inflow from the Zambezi River, posting an increment of 3.05 metres, compared to what was recorded last year during the same period.

“The lake level rose by 0.21 metres during the week under review due to high inflow on the Zambezi main stream and closed the week at 482.56 metres on 9th May, 2017, which is 3.05 meters above what was recorded last year on the same date.

“All spillway gates at Kariba remained closed during the week as the Kariba lake was created and designed to operate between levels 475.50m and 488.50m, with 0.70m freeboard at all times,” reads the update.

Zambia was hit by a prolonged drought in 2015 due to the El Nino weather pattern which affected water harvest, leading to Zesco load shedding as the country depended on hydro-power generation.

In June 2015, Zesco released a statement saying the erratic rainfall over the last two years had resulted in low water supplies at both its Kariba North power station and Kafue Gorge station.

Kariba was at the time running at only 40 percent capacity while Kafue Gorge was running at one-third of its 1, 500 megawatt (MW) generation capacity.

The Kariba dam supplies 1,626 megawatts of electricity to parts of both Zambia and Zimbabwe and generates 6, 400 gigawatt-hours per annum and each country has its own power station on the north and south bank of the dam respectively.

Since Zambia’s independence in 1964, two more power projects have been built on the Kafue River – the Kafue Gorge and the Itezhi-Tezhi.