The Sunday Mail
Harmony Agere
The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), which manages water resources in the Zambezi River on behalf of Zimbabwe and Zambia, will allocate adequate water for power generation at Kariba Power Station throughout the year as water levels continue rising.
Kariba South Power is the biggest local power generating plant at 1 050MW.
In a statement Tuesday, ZRA chief executive officer Engineer Munyaradzi Munodawafa said it was encouraging that the water levels were rising at a time when they normally decrease.
“From December 22, 2020, to January 18, 2021, the lake levels have increased by a total of 0,40 meters or 0,08 percent, thus pushing the overall lake levels to 3,2 meters above the Minimum Operating Level (MOL) of 475,5m on January 18, 2021,” he said.
“This 3,2 meters above the MOL translates to 14,55 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM) of usable water storage currently in the lake.
“It is very encouraging to note that the Lake levels, which should generally be in a decreasing trend at this time of the year have continued to record a steady rise due to increased rainfall activity on and around the Lake, leading to a lake level of 478,71m with 22,45 percent live/usable storage on January 18 2021.”
Eng Munodawafa said last year, on the same date, the lake level was lower at 476,71m, with 8,4 percent usable storage.
“Based on the Meteorological authorities’ projections of normal to above-normal rains for the on-going 2020/2021 rainfall season, the Authority will maintain the 30 BCM of water allocated for power generation operations at Kariba for the year 2021,” he said.
“This will be shared equally between Kariba North Bank Power Station and Kariba South Bank Power Station.”
