News / National
Kariba Dam renovation boost for Sadc power
30 May 2017 at 07:31hrs | Views
Africa's largest man-made inland lake, Kariba Dam situated along the mighty Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia is again on the mend following realisation by the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region of its importance following the dwindling of desperately required energy to stimulate economic growth.
If efforts by the Sadc regional bloc together with private sector pull their resources together to ensure the dam has been renovated to its full capacity, an estimated 3 000 megawatts of electricity will be produced to supply electricity to host neighbouring countries Zambia and Zimbabwe while fellow Sadc member states such as Botswana, Namibia and Africa's most developed nation – South Africa also stand to benefit.
Presently the colossal dam is operating below par where it is generating an average of 1 626 megawatts of electricity being shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe while a small portion of the power goes to Namibia through NamPower. Namibian government, which is also benefiting from the giant dam has committed some funding to ensure the Zimbabwe dam project becomes a success story.
Meanwhile, a potentially devastating load-shedding has been averted after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Zesa Holdings yesterday struck a payment deal to liquidate arrears to Eskom of South Africa within four months. .
The South African power utility had given Zesa up to tomorrow to settle its arrears or risk being switched off over a $43 million debt. Zesa officials are now expected to take the payment plan to Eskom for ratification on Friday. Zesa chief executive Engineer Josh Chifamba said they had made progress towards settling the debt.
If efforts by the Sadc regional bloc together with private sector pull their resources together to ensure the dam has been renovated to its full capacity, an estimated 3 000 megawatts of electricity will be produced to supply electricity to host neighbouring countries Zambia and Zimbabwe while fellow Sadc member states such as Botswana, Namibia and Africa's most developed nation – South Africa also stand to benefit.
Presently the colossal dam is operating below par where it is generating an average of 1 626 megawatts of electricity being shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe while a small portion of the power goes to Namibia through NamPower. Namibian government, which is also benefiting from the giant dam has committed some funding to ensure the Zimbabwe dam project becomes a success story.
Meanwhile, a potentially devastating load-shedding has been averted after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Zesa Holdings yesterday struck a payment deal to liquidate arrears to Eskom of South Africa within four months. .
The South African power utility had given Zesa up to tomorrow to settle its arrears or risk being switched off over a $43 million debt. Zesa officials are now expected to take the payment plan to Eskom for ratification on Friday. Zesa chief executive Engineer Josh Chifamba said they had made progress towards settling the debt.
Source - online
