Electricity crisis to worsen Southern Africa’s largest dam stops power generation to Zimbabwe

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The Zambezi River Authority on Sunday ordered the suspension until January of electricity generation at the Kariba Dam, which supplies power to the Zimbabwean utility, until January due to water shortages.

Water storage at the dam is at 4.6 percent of capacity, below levels needed to run power generation operations at the Kariba South Bank power station, the ZRA, which administers the dam on behalf of Zambia and Zimbabwe, said in a letter reported by Bloomberg.

The ZRA had already raised the alarm earlier this month about the sharp decline in storage levels, and did not foresee an improvement until the first quarter of 2023, when the flows begin to receive the accumulated water from the rains of these months to refill the Kariba, the Bulawayo portal reported at the time.

Zimbabwe generates 1,050 megawatts of power from the Kariba power plant, half of its installed capacity of 2,100 megawatts.

Washington Mareya, acting managing director of Zimbabwe Power, did not comment to Bloomberg other than to assure that authorities are working on the issue. _*Bloomberg*_