Increase water quota to Kariba North, ZRA told

CONSIDER allocating more water to enable Zesco increase power generation at KNBPS, following an increase in water level at Kariba Dam, energy expert Victor Hazemba has advised the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA).

On Tuesday, Zesco disclosed that the Kariba North Bank power station in Siavonga was operating at 400MW against the installed capacity of 1080MW, and that the operator of the Kariba Dam complex, ZRA had only allocated it 15 billion cubic metres of water for power generation for this year.

But Mr Hazemba said in an interview that it did not make economic sense for ZRA to wait until the dam is full to capacity before it decides to allocate more water to the power utility company when the country was grappling with a dire shortage of power energy for economic activities.

He said allocating more water for power generation at the country’s biggest power station would help in reducing load shedding that was still being experienced in some parts of the country.

“It doesn’t make sense for ZRA to continue holding on to water when available data show that Lake

Kariba is receiving a lot of water following good rains recorded around the upper Zambezi River catchment area,” he said.

Mr Hazemba also said as the country was slowly recovering from the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was expected that economic activities will go up resulting in more demand for electricity which will lead to more load shedding.

Mr Hazemba said Zambians were aware that Zesco signed contracts worth $548 million with Power China to develop three solar power plants that will add 600 megawatts to the national grid but that it seems very little was being done to actualise the projects.