In Zambia, drought is causing an unprecedented energy crisis

In the Kariba basin, in Zambia, there is little water due to drought.This does not allow electricity to be produced and the country is at the mercy of blackouts.

• Due to the El Niño meteorological phenomenon, there has been very little rain in Zambia for years.
• The turbines at the Kariba power plant have practically stopped working.
• Millions of people are without electricity and the dam is also starting to show signs of failure.

The dam Kariba contains the waters of the largest artificial basin in the world, between Zambia And Zimbabwe.Among numerous difficulties, it was built starting from fifties to trap the flow of the Zambezi River and revolutionize the energy supply of the two countries.

THE'80 percent of the electricity supply in Zambia comes from the turbines of Lake Kariba, but for some time this has no longer been the case.It no longer rains in the town and there drought it almost dried up the basin, which thus lost its energetic power.Today, millions of people are faced with the worst blackout of the country's history and the economy is on its knees.As if that wasn't enough, the dam risks collapsing due to the poor maintenance.

The history of the Kariba Dam

When it was decided to block the flow of the river Zambezi to build the Kariba dam, the European colonial powers were still in the territory.Those were the times of Central African Federation, a project to unite three colonies wanted in the 1950s byBritish Empire to restore prestige to its possessions and attract new investments.

Among these was the Kariba Dam, designed to exploit the enormous energy potential of the Zambezi River.The design of the infrastructure was entrusted to a French engineer, the realization a Italian companies linked to Fiat.The local communities they opposed immediately to the project, both because it involved the clearing of tens of thousands of people who lived from fishing and agriculture, both for the destructive impact on flora and fauna, and because it was there deep mistrust in the possibility of blocking such an unpredictable river course.

In fact the work was very bumpy:there were several floods which destroyed the construction sites and brought the water to exceed the dam caissons.They also died during the realization of the project 80 workers, so much so that we started talking about “cursed dam”.But in the end it saw the light, creating the largest artificial reservoir in the world, capable of providing something like 1,320 megawatts of electricity to both Zambia and Zimbabwe, which have since become independent.

A basin without water

Today the Kariba dam is no longer talked about energy revolution that he brought to the territory, but for his own criticality.

Due to the meteorological phenomenon El Niño, in Zambia for years it has rained very little, or not at all, while the temperatures are very high.This, among other things, has caused the waters to progressively lower Kariba Basin, from which trees and other vegetation emerged.The last rainy season caused the water levels to rise 30 centimeters, against the meters of normal times.

The six turbines of the power plant Kariba North Bank they actually stopped working today is produced only the 7 percent than it should in terms of electricity.The result is that in a country that depends for the80 percent from that basin, and where already under normal conditions more than half of the total population of 20 million people does not have access to electricity, it is ongoing the worst energy crisis in history.Almost the entire country has to deal with continuous blackouts and this is bringing not only people's daily lives to its knees, but also the country's economy.

Dam at risk of collapse

In recent years the African continent has been increasingly relying on hydroelectric energy.Today in this way the 17 percent of total energy, but by 2040 we should reach 23 percent.As underlines to the international media Associated Press Carlos Lopes, professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, “extreme weather conditions, including prolonged droughts, make it clear that over-reliance on hydropower is no longer sustainable.”

In recent years the Zambian government has tried to encourage the use ofsolar energy, but the energy crisis that the country is experiencing today is forcing it to go back, with the population and the institutions themselves relying on old diesel power generators. 

However, the problems relating to the Kariba dam do not end here and the worst could still be to come.For years he warns himself from the risk of a failure of the infrastructure:the waters eroded the materials, the first ones were formed cracks and beyond the dam the water created a moat very deep which threatens its foundations.A possible collapse would not only deprive Zambia of its main energy supplier, but it would cause one river tsunami which would wipe out an entire valley, with a dramatic death toll and destruction.