Zambezi River Authority says it will maintain the 30 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) of water for power generation operations at Kariba for the year 2021.
Authority Chief Executive Engineer Munyaradzi Munodawafa told Money FM News in a statement that this follows the normal to above normal rainfall projections made for the 2020/2021 rainfall season by both local and regional weather experts and authorities.
“Zambezi River Authority will maintain the 30 BCM of water for power generation operations at Kariba for the year 2021 as announced in the previous statement of 6th November 2020,” he said.
Engineer Munodawafa said the maintained water for power generation will be shared equally between Kariba North Bank Power Station and Kariba South Bank Power Station.
“The Authority will continue to monitor the hydrological outlook of the Kariba Catchment and make necessary adjustments in the reservoir operations to ensure continued availability of water for power generation operations at Kariba,” he said.
Engineer Munodawafa has since disclosed that Lake levels, which should generally be decreasing at this time of the year, has recorded a steady rise due to increased rainfall activity on and around the Lake, leading to a lake level of 478.31 meters on 22nd December 2020.
“Last year on the same date, the Lake level was lower at 476.76m (8.70% usable storage),” the Engineer said in a statement.
He noted that the Authority continues to gather and record daily water level readings at its 14 gauging stations located across the Kariba Catchment area, with the recorded hydrological data utilized in informing reservoir operations at Kariba.
“The principal gauging stations of Chavuma and Victoria Falls remain pivotal in as far as the gauging of the overall inflows into Lake Kariba is concerned,” he disclosed.