LUSAKA – Zambia issued a warning on Friday that it might impose statewide blackouts lasting up to six hours each day as a result of water shortages at one of southern Africa’s largest dams.
The water shortages are so dire that the production of electricity has to be hampered in a nation that has received rave reviews lately for good leadership under new leader Hakainde Hichilema.
According to the country’s Energy Minister Peter Kapala, the power outages will start on December 15 and remain “until the water levels improve.”
According to energy experts, Zambia, which is rich in copper, generates more than 80% of its energy from hydroelectric power.
Power plants are located on the Kariba Dam, which crosses the boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The body in charge of it informed Zimbabwe last week that the country’s power plant’s operations had to be suspended because of insufficient rainfall, which left the reservoir’s “usable storage” at 4.6% filled.
According to Zimbabwe’s Energy Minister Soda Zhemu, the plant, which generates a sizable portion of the nation’s electricity, won’t fully shut down but will instead “continue to generate but at a reduced capacity.”
In recent years, power outages and recurrent droughts have affected both Zambia and Zimbabwe.
