A drought has caused an electricity crisis as Zambia heavily relies on the hydro-powered Kariba Dam.
Kariba Dam was built in a gorge between Zambia and Zimbabwe holding back the Zambezi River to create a man-made lake
But one of the severest droughts in decades - caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon - has decimated Zambia’s power-generation capacity. On Wednesday, there was finally some good news when Minister of Energy Makozo Chikote said the plant was now fully operational, and Zambians would have at least three hours of electricity a day.
But because of the drought that has led to parts of the river drying up, only one of the six turbines at Zambia's power station is operating, resulting in the generation of a paltry 7% of the 1,080 MW installed at Kariba.Engineer Cephas Museba - who has been working for the state-owned power utility 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.
All the meat we had bought had gone off and we had to give it to our German Shepherd dog, the happiest member of our household these days.Kennedy's dog is the only one benefiting from the electricity crisis in their home But some people say their solar panels do not generate enough electricity when there is little sunlight - and they cannot afford to install more panels. Most Zambians cannot afford solar panels at all.
As boreholes work with electricity and solar-powered pumps, homes are now also without a constant supply of water, making it impossible to even flush the toilet.
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