The heavy rainfall recorded during the rainy season has increased the water level of the Zambezi River, thereby increasing the volume allocated to Zambia and Zimbabwe for power generation.

This will see an increase in the power generation for both countries. Both the Zambia Electricity Supply Commission (ZESCO) and Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) recently had their allocations increased by 4 billion cubic metres.

The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) confirmed the increased allocation to the countries after the inflows to the Kariba Dam during the rainy season. The ZRA manages the affairs of the mighty river shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Kariba dam can hold as much as 65 billion cubic metres of water. It is said that on 15th July 2020, the water levels receded to 481.21 metres, 5.71 metres above the minimum operating level of 475.50 metres.

Although the rainy season was expected since November (which is the customary month) last year, it came in January. There were heavy downpours in the first quarter of the year which led to this massive increase.

The increased allocation is an advantage for both countries as it will see power stabilisation for a longer period of time. It is of more advantage to Zimbabwe who has been facing power challenges for a while now.

Speaking on the latest development, the Chief Executive of Zambezi River Authority, Munyaradzi Munodawafa said: “Following a review of the hydrological outlook at Kariba undertaken at the end of the second quarter of 2020, the Authority has since increased water allocation for power generation operations at Kariba by four billion cubic meters (4BCM).”

“As per agreed operational framework for Kariba, the additional water allocation will be shared equally between ZPC and ZESCO for their respective power generation operations at Kariba. This is an upward revision of the combined water allocation for the year 2020 from 23BCM to 27BCM.”