Zambia will start load shedding from 15 December in response to a huge drop in water levels in Lake Kariba, which supply water for power generation.

Peter Kapala, Zambia’s energy minister, on Friday, told Parliament that water in the lake has dropped to 4.1 percent of usable storage for the Kariba North Bank Power Station in Zambia and the Kariba South Bank on the Zimbabwean side of the lake. He said:

The low water level situation in Lake Kariba threatens the power generation from both the Kariba North Bank Hydropower station and Kariba South Bank Hydropower station.

… We anticipate that this will translate into a load management regime starting on the 15th of December, 2022 of up to six hours daily.

Zimbabwe and Zambia jointly own the Kariba Dam and it is the main source of electricity generation for both countries.

To avoid a complete shutdown of the two power stations, the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) has told Zimbabwe to cut generation to a maximum of 300 megawatts and Zambia to a maximum of 800 megawatts, said Kapala.

The Kariba North Bank Power Station in Zambia has an installed capacity of 1080 megawatts while the Kariba South Bank Power station in Zimbabwe has a capacity of 1050 megawatts.

Zimbabwe is already experiencing power cuts lasting for more than 15 hours per day in most parts of the country. | Al Jazeera