Hydro dependency making Zambia vulnerable – CEC

in Liv

COPPERBELT Energy Corporation (CEC) says Zambia's continued dependency on hydro power supply had made it vulnerable to climate change effects.

CEC Managing Director, Owen Silavwe, also advised that Zambia should try and learn from other countries around the globe which were managing on renewable energy.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation on the sidelines of the ongoing National Economic Summit in Livingstone yesterday, Mr Silavwe said that it is high time the country shifted from reliance on hydroelectricity to other sources of energy like renewables.

He said currently, hydro power use in Zambia accounted for 80 percent while thermal accounted for 20 percent.

Mr Silavwe observed that the effects of climate change has seriously cast doubts as to whether the country should still continue to rely on hydro energy.

He said the power shortage which affected Zambia in 2015 to 2016 and disrupted its economic development, was again back this year.

"As you are aware this country is predominantly hydro and at the moment 80% is hydro and then the rest the rest thermal. Now, this makes the country vulnerable to issues of climate change that we are dealing with across the globe," he said.

"Just to get you back, you would like to recall the water shortage of 2015-2016 and we are back to that situation in 2019 and obviously as a country, we need to look for sustainable ways in ensuring that we stop this experience of water shortages each time we have a full or parcial drought," said Mr Silavwe.

He said, "It is imperative for the country to consider other means of energy sources because the effect of climate is beginning to casts some doubts in people's minds whether we should continue with hydro system."

Mr Silavwe said, for a solution to this problem, Zambia needed to look around the world for examples where it could learn from, like in Europe. He said countries in Europe were moving from away from predominantly using coal to renewable energy or a combination of the two.

Asked on whether there was political will for Zambia to adopt energy renewables as a sure source of the nation’s energy, the CEC managing director responded i

“As you are aware this country is predominantly hydro and at the moment 80% is hydro and then the rest the rest thermal. Now, this makes the country vulnerable to issues of climate change that we are dealing with across the globe,” he saidn the affirmative.

"In terms of policy direcAs you are aware this country is predominantly hydro and at the moment 80% is hydro and then the rest the rest thermal. Now, this makes the country vulnerable to issues of climate change that we are dealing with across the globe,”

tion and regulations, we need to focus more on renewables because through this, we will be able to combine with hydro and take advantage of endowed natural resources we have," he said.

"The country is on the right path, the political will is there...if you look at the number of programs that the government is supporting, you will notice that there is political will," he said.

He mentioned the scaling up of solar program which the government was implementing with the help of the World Bank and the Get Fight, which is working with his company.