Drought is parching the world's largest man-made lake, stripping Zambia of its electricity
Zambia’s worst electricity blackouts in memory have been caused by a severe drought in the region that has left the critical Kariba dam with insufficient water to run its hydroelectric turbines
LAKE KARIBA, Zambia — Tindor Sikunyongana is trying to run a welding business which these days means buying a diesel generator with costly fuel he can't always afford.
Like everyone in Zambia, Sikunyongana is facing a daily struggle to find and afford electricity during a climate-induced energy crisis that’s robbed the southern African country of almost all its power.
“Only God knows when this crisis will end,” said Sikunyongana. His generator ran out of diesel and spluttered to a halt as he spoke. “You see what I mean?” he said.
Zambia's worst electricity blackouts in memory have been caused by a severe drought in the region that has left the critical Kariba dam, the source of Sikunyongana's woes, with insufficient water to run its hydroelectric turbines. Kariba is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and lies 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Lusaka on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The massive dam wall was built in the 1950s and more than 80 workers died during construction. It was meant to revolutionize the countries' energy supplies by trapping the water of the Zambezi River, turning a valley into a huge lake and providing an endless supply of renewable hydroelectric power.
That's not the case anymore as months of drought brought by the naturally occurring El Nino weather pattern and exacerbated by warming temperatures have put Zambia's hydroelectric station on the brink of completely shutting down for the first time.
The water level is so low that only one of the six turbines on Zambia's side of the
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