'Kariba Dam water levels still critical'

KARIBA Dam water levels remain critically low as its catchment area did not receive significant inflows this year, keeping power supplies from Zimbabwe's main electricity source in a precarious state, the energy minister has said.  

According to the Fingaz, the Energy and Power Development minister, Samuel Undenge told journalists in Bulawayo last week on the sidelines of a regional energy conference that the country was not yet out of the woods.

"As you aware, last year we were producing at an average of 285MW and the Zambezi River Authority, which administers the Kariba dam, has increased our allocation of water from 20 billion to 30 billion. We are now producing 380MW and in other words we have moved from 285MW to 380MW which is 50,6 percent of the generation capacity," Undenge said.

"So we are not yet out of the woods. But we have had that increased generation. It's better, instead of going further down, we are now regaining what we had lost."

Permanent secretary in the Energy Ministry, Partson Mbiriri, said 45 percent of the water that comes into Lake Kariba comes from the northern catchment which is Zambia, Angola and DRC but those areas did not receive much rains compared to Zimbabwe.

Undenge said when the Kariba dam is full, it holds 161 billion cubic metres of water, but out of the 161 billion cubic metres of water, only 65 billion cubic metres of water are available for power generation.

"So we still need, perhaps, another year or two of very good rains for the dam to fill up. Statistically, Zimbabwe contributes 15 percent of the water inflows into the Kariba Dam and Zambia contributes 42.5 percent of the water inflows into the Kariba Dam. So much of the catchment area of the Kariba Dam, the Zambezi River, is in Zambia," he said.