Kariba North experience low water levels

KARIBA North Bank hydropower station is operating at half capacity due to low water levels in the main reservoirs for electricity generation a development that mighht be affecting Zimbabwean side as well leading to serious shortage of electricity.

Zambia's Daily News paper reported that Kariba North Bank hydropower station manager Samuel Sinkala said rainfall in the Zambezi catchment did not generate enough river inflows to gain water levels in Lake Kariba.

Sinkala said water levels in Lake Kariba are at 43 percent while last year at the same time, the lake was 80 percent full.

"The water level in the lake has been continuously dropping and is now at six metres above the minimum operating level," he said.

Sinkala said this here when special assistant to the President for projects monitoring and implementation Lucky Mulusa toured the power plant yesterday.

He said water levels in the lake are lower than the normal operation level hence reduced power generation to 500 megawatts from the normal 1050 megawatts at full capacity.

"The water in the lake is not enough to enable us to generate power normally, therefore, we urge our customers to support the limitations and the `switch and save' programme because we can only reach December if we continue generating 500 megawatts," Mr Sinkala said.

He warned that if the situation is not controlled, the country will reach a point where it cannot generate any more power and the plant will be forced to shut down if the rains do not come by December.

"A similar situation occurred in 1995 to 1996 but then the demand was not as much as it is now,"  Sinkala said.

He said power generation has to be maintained at 500 megawatts to avoid water running out.

Sinkala said some anti-vortex beams are currently exposed due to low water levels in the lake, which is dangerous because they can be damaged.

And  Mulusa said Government has started exploring other ways of generating power to reduce high dependence on hydropower.

"The machines would be damaged if the power utility company decided to operate at full capacity, which we don't want," he said.

He said the current situation of sharing power through load shedding is a safety measure.

Siavonga district commissioner Lovemore Kanyama said the load shedding should not be politicised because it is as a result of climate change.