ZRA issues Kariba Dam water update

The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) has issued an update on water levels at Kariba Dam as at 29 JULY 2024.

 

Below is the latest level:

The 280 kilometre long, man-made Lake Kariba is part of the Kariba Dam, which was built between 1955 and 1959 in the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

 

The dam provides hydroelectric power to the Kariba north power station on the Zambian side and Kariba south power station on the Zimbabwean side.

 

These provide most of the electricity for the two nations.

 

Since the early 2010s, the El Niño weather phenomenon has caused droughts and heatwaves in the Zambezi region, resulting a drop in the water levels at Lake Kariba.

 

EL Niño is an unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that brings hotter temperatures and much lower rainfall to southern Africa for five months at a time.

 

By 8 April 2024, ZRA which owns and manages Lake Kariba, announced that water in the lake had dropped to just 13.52% of its usable storage for electricity generation.

 

Water levels in the lake fluctuate according to the rainfall – this time last year, the lake was at 21.94% of its usable storage for electricity generation, but levels dropped as low as 12% in 2015.

 

Zwnews