The PF Government has announced that water levels at Kariba North Bank have gone down and therefore the country will soon be experiencing load shedding due to the reduced power generation.
Energy and Water Development Deputy Minister Charles Zulu said low water levels pose a threat on the power generation for the whole country.He said some neighboring countries who were generating power from Kariba North Bank would be affected as well.Mr Zulu said the situation should not be blamed on Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) but due to low water levels.
[pullquote]We expect the whole situation to normalize after six months once rains start next season[/pullquote]
“Water levels have really gone down at Kariba North Bank and because of this we expect the whole country to experience load-shedding anytime soon. We expect the whole situation to normalize after six months once rains start next season,” he said.
He however said Government was working on an inter connector project with other neighboring countries so that Zambia could generate power from other countries when there was a deficit.
yaba just when am about to come home honestly, this are some of the reasons its so hard to live in zambia.
BENG boys where are you? Any crooks for this situation?
As long as the population,mines and other industries keep on increasing in Zambia we are likely to experience problems like these because all these leads to pressure on the water levels.The number of boreholes are also increasing everyday putting more pressure on the aquifers.Some farmers along some of the rivers are also increasingly diverting some of the waters into their farmlands for irrigation and fish farming purposes.
No electricity during world cup….
These are natural calamities and have nothing to do with PF.Its not like they control the rains.Why do you always want to politicize even straight forward things ? Africans are a problem.
Critique of pure reason – Nooooo!! That is not correct. The rains have just stopped – the low water level reason needs qualification.
What is this now? Is it some curse or what? I thought we had ample rain that delivered record bumper harvest and now e are being told to wait for next seasons rains? How does the maths works in PF Government?
Do you believe that pigs can fly?
Power Failure (PF), nothing unusual with these people. Everything is failing under their clock, after shouting the loudest during the Mwanawasa time. Now we have a record bumper harvest out of low rain fall. What a team of crocks is this one?
Cost of living in Six month time will be too high for most of the people who danced tot the tune of Dochi Kubeba on that night of 2011.
Unfortunately, Southern province didnt have strong rains like the rest of the country (had drought in some areas)
Wolfman – The Zambezi river originates from NW province, passes through NW province, Congo, Angola, back into NW province, Western province, and then Southern province. Drought in Southern province alone may not be an adequate reason unless you present quantitative data to back you up.
It’s unacceptable for a country like ours endowed with so much water to be going through load-shedding as a result of low water level. We need to utilise our water resources to the max, not that I am blaming PF, but it’s a culmination of policies by UNIP and MMD. PF as party in government should spell out their plan to mitigate this load-shedding problem in future
What a headline ! Why not just “Ministry of Energy and Water Development announces countrywide load shedding ?” Oh sorry i forgot that you have to be sensational to attract comments.My bad !
@Saulosi it seems the headline not only caught your curiosity but your attention as well!
@Liam…Maybe yes,maybe not.You can never know ! You may be right.
@Saulosi & Liam, PF government took over Zesco, and handed it to Fr. Bwalya who since left. PF presidential bodyguard Judge Ngoma was works at Zesco too. So the load-shedding is very political.
@Nostradamus…really ? Ha ha ha i love your reasoning man.
@Saulosi, very true and well observed. We need to get to the bottom of how we can have such low water levels so soon after so much rainfall. Is it these useless racist white farmers from SA and Zim that are to blame, are they using too much water for irrigation??? If that is the case please let’s send them packing, they don’t benefit us in any way.
Perharps this cud be the most incompetent govt the world has ever seen. Next time vote for pipo who went thru classroom. I believe any other govt cud have done better than these dinosaurs & kaponyas running govt.
This is happending just after announcing a 25% increase in tariffs. It is about time consumers had a say in the quality of service provided by organisations such as ZESCO. Then again, there is the 250 million U.S. dollars needed to repair the fractures to the aging walls of Kariba. Hmmm … makes me wonder.
whats the point of paying electricity bills if half the year is spent in load shedding and just yesterday they were claiming 24 percent increase on electricity bills….pf has to surrender people will apprciate them….
What!! does Zambia experience load shedding every time its not raining? This is what happens when you don’t care when trees are cut down indiscriminately at river sources….wait and see what happens when rivers dry out!! Its time our politicians start to listen to experts and professionals.
I thought rainfall was enough in Zambia. This is just a gimick
I am still trying to get to grips with this announcement and particularly the justification. In 1991/92 and 2001/02 we had droughts in Zambia. Did anyone announce load shedding as a result of low water levels? NO! So what caused the water levels to go down? Has the Zambezi river suddenly stopped feeding Lake Kariba? And we have just left the rainy season-less than a month ago. How can the effect be immediately felt? Come one guys, if we are going to justify an action, lets at least rehearse a better excuse to give because the one given is outrageously out of context
From the 2008 experience, mass loadshedding coincides with a grand state funeral. I’ve never heard of water levels as a cause for loadshedding-not in the history of Zambia.
Water is still rising along the Zambezi. No need for panic just find another reason.
The mainly reason is, since we are very low on foreign reserves, the PF has thought of reducing you local consumption and exporting the excess to earn more USA dollar.
Jah Jehovah Emmanuel,just when they have increased the tariffs.
I am fed up of these increments. Talk time has also reduced in value. Ooh where are we going. Am sure fuel will soon rise. Accommodation has been dolarised what a country. I love our motherland…Stop politicizing our economy please.
‘Under PF, there will be no load shedding! Because we will recapitalise ZESCO within 90 days’ quote from some !diot called Sata during campaigns.
PF has just failed. Come 2016, lets use our brains when voting.
Guys, the rains were quite worrying this year. its a hydrological problem.
there will be no water come october, the driest hydrological month. cattle will suffer, forget about having enough water for power generation, even at your kafue gorge.
water water water
If there was no flood gate opening that could be possible but if you opened them and we are just from the rain season them there is more to that propably exporting
…its just another strategy to try and stabilise the Kwacha. They want to ration the commodity to Zambians and export as much in an effort to get more forex to flood the market. They have found it difficult to face and tell us this fact…because we would say no to load shedding’….. and they chose to ‘blame’ nature of which we cannot react to……
I don’t understand how the water levels in Lake Kariba can be low when there was so much rain during the last rain season. And even if there’s drought in Southern Province, that wouldn’t have any effect as the catchment area for the Zambezi is further upriver.
And which other countries generate power at Kariba North Bank as the article says? This article is really poorly researched and should be deleted from this posting.
WE HAVE BEEN WASTING MONEY ON CONSTITUTION MAKING WITH EACH PRESIDENT THAT COMES ON THE SCENE.
HOW MUCH POWER (GREEN ENERGY) COULD HAVE THAT MONEY GIVEN US?
WRONG PRIORITIES AND ALWAYS CRYING……WAKE UP.