By Nyasha Chingono, HARARE
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's prolonged power shortage is set to worsen after the entity that manages southern Africa's biggest dam ordered suspension of electricity generation at its main hydro plant because of a water shortage.
In a letter dated Nov. 25 and
seen by Reuters, the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) told the Zimbabwe Power
Company that the Kariba South hydropower station had used more than its 2022
water allocation and that the Kariba Dam's usable storage was only 4.6% full.
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The ZRA manages the Kariba Dam
on behalf of the Zimbabwean and Zambian governments.
"The Zambezi River
Authority is left with no choice but to firmly guide that ... generation
activities at the South Bank Power Station are wholly suspended henceforth
until January 2023 when a further review of the substantive hydrological
outlook at Kariba will be undertaken," the letter read.
Zimbabwe has suffered acute
power shortages for several years, as successive droughts have resulted in poor
inflows into the Kariba Dam and as ageing coal-fired power stations have
repeatedly broken down.
The government has licensed
some independent solar producers to try to augment supply.
Kariba South has an installed
capacity of 1,050 megawatts but has been producing well below that due to low
water levels in the dam.
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