The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
ZIMBABWE and Zambia should find alternative power sources to augment power generation at Kariba, as below-normal rains in the catchment area have resulted in limited allocations of water for producing hydro power, the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) has said.
On Thursday, ZRA, which is responsible for managing Zambezi River water on behalf of the two riparian states, announced that it had allocated 16 billion cubic meters of water to be shared equally between ZESCO (Zambia) and Kariba Hydro Power Company (Zimbabwe) for power generation at Kariba in 2024.
ZRA chief executive officer Engineer Munyaradzi Munodawafa said the 2024 water allocation was informed by the 2023-2024 rainfall forecasts made by the Southern Africa Climate Outlook Forum.
“Accordingly, power utilities have been advised to consider alternative sources of power to complement generation at Kariba in order to fill any power generation deficit that could arise due to the lower water allocation at Kariba for the year 2024,” Engineer Munodawafa said in a statement.
He said the hydrological simulations carried out by the authority using the Kariba Inflow Forecasting System that is based on satellite rainfall measurements and numerical weather forecasts — providing short-term and seasonal flow forecasts — considered the high likelihood of a below-average rainfall season, which, in turn, will likely result in below-average inflows into Lake Kariba, thereby negatively impacting the volume of water available for power generation during the year 2024
