The Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) in Western Province has said the water levels in the Barotse plains are so far favouring the hosting of the 2020 Kuomboka traditional ceremony of the Lozi people.
Induna Katema told ZANIS in an interview that in terms of flood levels, it is promising that the Kuomboka will take place this year.
He said the date will however be announced once the flood plains reach the peak of water levels and traditional rite are in place.
The BRE Representative further hinted that the date will probably be around mid-March or April.
Induna Katema added that the BRE has initiated the Sunday meetings, in order to strategise on fundraising ventures and other requirements.
Western Province last hosted the Kuomboka ceremony in 2018 and last year the BRE cancelled the 2019 Kuomboka traditional ceremony due to low water levels in the Barotse flood plains.
Hope the kariba dam is full
I said we don’t want flabby rowers with tummies like Kambwili and GBM. We want to se muscular Africans
The Kariba dam will fill after the Kuomboka, don’t you know that the plains were dry and have to fill before water is released by the ancestors. This time we shall not allow hehe near the Kuomboka
The lord is answering our prayers. No amount of evil from opposition will prosper. I will attend it this year if all goes well with water levels. Last time I attended we had a great celebration you people. We drunk ate and enjoyed life
Are they sending president Isaac Chipampe this time? He may as well address a press conference when he is in Mongu.
You have no idea how big the Kariba Lake is. It is not the largest man made lake in the world for nothing. It is 181 billion cubic metres. The average amount of water you get from the rains in a year, i.e. annual runoff, is 40 billion cubic metres. So how can it be filled in a year. Ka itezhitezhi lake is 6 billion cubic metres, therefore, there is every likelihood that it will be filled this year and ZESCO will be able to generate 120 MW at Itezhitezhi Dam, the same water will generate 990 MW at Kafue Gorge Upper and the same water will generate 750 MW at Kafue Gorge Lower. ZRA has already allocated water at Kariba to ZESCO and ZESA, a combined power generation of 550 MW, not much.
yes but did it dry up completely to the bottom. lol
ECL is not attending this year because he is afraid of motor racing with HH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@CatPower. The question of the Kariba Lake becoming dry is laughable indeed. It cannot be allowed to dry up because there is minimum level of 475.5m above sea level which ZRA cannot allow to be reached. This is called dead storage. At this level the machines cannot generate electricity and ZRA reduces water allocated to ZESCO and ZESA for power generation so that this level is not reached.
Okay 115 billion cubic meters has always to be in the lake. The remaining 65 billion cubic meters can not be filled up by an inflow of 40 billion cubic meters plus the water is continuously being depleted through some power generation and a huge amount through losses from the lake surface from evaporation.
The remaining 65 billion cubic meters is referred to as useful storage in contrast to the water that remains in the dead which is dead storage.
With Kariba at 11.5% full just now there is space for about 57.5 Billion m3 so yes, even ignoring draw off for power and evaporation at mean annual inflow of 43 billion m3 it would take best part of 15-18 months to fill. However at maximum annual (flood) inflow rates of over 80billion mostly arriving over 4 months it could happen a lot quicker. I agree that, as long as water is being drawn off for power generation, filling this year is extremely unlikely but we should see the level increase quite a lot. The flow currently at Chavuma in the upper Zambezi is very high – just peaked at 5000m3/sec – about 3 times the long term mean for this time of year. Flow at Ngonye just doubled over the past 2 weeks and will soon exceed 2000m3/sec. All this water will soon be arriving a Victoria falls…