By Reeturaj - Oct 04, 2024
Zambia is facing severe electricity blackouts due to a drought affecting power generation, leaving cities and towns without electricity for days. The country's reliance on the Kariba Dam and coal-fired power plants has resulted in only limited hours of power being available. The government is encouraging the use of solar energy and generators in certain facilities, but challenges remain with solar panel efficiency and gas shortages. The crisis has led to increased use of charcoal for cooking despite environmental concerns and measures to prevent waterborne diseases like cholera are being advised. President Hichilema's administration is investing in renewable energy sources to reduce dependency on hydro-power and plans to build a second coal-fired power plant.
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Despite having the mighty Zambezi River and the massive hydro-powered Kariba Dam, Zambia is currently facing the worst electricity blackouts in living memory. The crisis is so severe that cities and towns across the country are sometimes without electricity for three consecutive days, with people considering themselves lucky if the lights come on for an hour or two. The power cuts have come as a shock to the 43% of Zambians who are connected to the grid and have taken electricity for granted all their lives. However, one of the severest droughts in decades, caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, has decimated Zambia’s power generation capacity. Nowadays people are visiting restaurants and bars to charge their phones.
For several weeks, the crisis was instigated when the country's only coal-fired power plant, Maamba Energy, was not operating at its maximum potential as it was under routine maintenance work. On Wednesday, finally, there was good news when Minister of Energy, Makozo Chikote said the plant was fully operational, and Zambians would have at least three hours of electricity a day. President Hakainde Hichilema declared the drought as a national disaster in February but the government was unable to resolve the energy crisis as Zambia is massively reliant on the Kariba Dam for its electricity.
Kariba (128m (420ft) high, 579m (1,900ft) long, and 21m (69ft) thick), located on the Zambezi, the fourth-longest river in Africa, was built in the 1950s and serves as the reservoir for the country’s largest underground power station, Kariba North Bank Power Station. Another power station on the opposite bank serves Zimbabwe. Due to a drought causing parts of the river to dry up, only one of the six turbines at Zambia's power station is currently operating, resulting in the generation of a mere 7% of the 1,080 MW installed at Kariba.
Cephas Museba, an engineer who has been working for Zesco for 19 years, says he has never seen water levels so low at Kariba. “I think we stopped receiving the rains as early as February. It’s supposed to rain up to April. If we compare the history of this basin, this is the lowest we have received,” he said. It has triggered an electricity crisis that is being felt in every business and home.
Fortunately, the government has arranged for generators in some markets, government offices and hospitals, though the struggling stories of the patients in the hospitals remain the same as before. The government is encouraging homes and businesses to switch to the usage of solar energy and has scrapped import taxes for solar equipment to make it cheaper. However, some are saying that their solar panels don’t generate enough electricity when there is insufficient sunlight and it is not affordable to install more panels. Now, many families have started cooking and heating water on portable gas stoves, but as a consequence shops are running out of gas too because of high demand. So in desperation to make it cheaper and to enhance the ease of household they are buying charcoal to cook and heat water, despite its negative impact on the environment and the climate. In the schools, children are advised to take five litres of water every day to resolve the problem of the sanitation crisis and the outbreak of waterborne diseases like cholera, which hit the country at the start of the year.
All these have left Zambians frustrated and infuriated. They pointed out that the blackouts highlight the failure of successive governmental plans, something that President Hichilema's administration has now pledged to do. Mr Maumbi proclaimed that Zesco was investing more in energy sources, including solar plants so that dependency on hydro-power could be reduced by 40%. But Zambia's focus is not only on green energy, coal is also in the mix. In July, the energy regulator provided approval to the plans for building the country's second coal-fired power plant.