The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) charged ZESCO and the Zimbabwe Power Company US$12,098 million in penalties for over-utilizing water meant for electricity generation at Lake Kariba in the financial year ending 31st December 2021.
This is in line with the provisions of Statutory Instrument Number 109/199 (Water Tariff) by-laws.
As of 31st December 2021, the power utility firms had cumulatively utilised 49.76 billion cubic metres of water.
According to ZRA’s 2021 annual report, the 49.76 billion cubic metres (BCM) translate into 11 per cent above the 2021 combined but equally shared allocation of 45 BCM respectively.
“Kariba North Bank Power Station utilised 25.18 BCM, which was 12 per cent above the 22. 5 BCM water allocation while Kariba South Bank Power Station utilized 24.58 BCM, which is 9 per cent above the 22.5 BCM water allocation,” the report stated.
The annual report further revealed that the impact of the two power utilities exceeding their 2021 water allocation was a drawdown in the lake level from the projected 2021 closing lake level of 19.15 BCM or 30 percent usable storage to the closing level of 2021.
The authority however continued to engage the power utility companies to reduce generation.
ZRA also disclosed that water quality data collection and processing was carried out for some stations on Lake Kariba and the Zambezi River.
The water quality remained within acceptable authority standards.
“The water samples that were analysed during the period under review were observed to be within the authority’s quality guidelines, indicating a healthy aquatic ecosystem,” the report read.
You will never see this money. It’s only on paper.
Very true
They both broke !!
maybe PF will pay
The journalism of nowadays is something else. So the journalist who penned this article thinks the revenue authority is the same as the river authority…..i pity u
I think it’s the Editor to blame. He is the one who laid out the page and attached the ZRA picture to the story
Zambezi River Authority is an all-Zimbabwean organisation that took advantage of our courtesy all these years pretending to be the Authority of the Zambezi River. The Zambezi is a Zambian river born and bread, so how does a Zimbabwean come in to control that? And i dont understand all our previous GRZs-they surrendered all the powers over Kariba Dam to Zimbabwe-which doesnt own the river that pours the water into the dam-cos we do.If we decide to block the Zambezi River,Zimbabweans wont have a Victoria Falls to claim, they wont even have a Kariba River either. So just how did our previous Governments surrender these rights to Zimbabweans? How? Look now they even have guts to fine you over your own RIver? yaba!
Its High time the Zambian Government cut this Deal with Zimbabwe and each one generate their own electricity. this simply goes to show that much of the electricity produced at the the Kariba Dam was channeled into zimbabwe than zambia as they controlled it, at our expense -sleeping Zambians. Those days of KK of helping Neighbors first, are now gone! Hence the build up of Kafue george 2. And next we need to upgrade Itezhi-tezhi and build two more power generators in Western Province where the Zambezi river is at its peak before pouring into the falls and Kariba(the two sites which only benefit Zimbabwe by far). Lets cut them off and internalise the benefits of our own River. They cant be making more money from it than us! Imagine all these years they have been killing it, at our expense…