'Improbable For Lake Kariba To Fill Up In 2020'
The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) has predicted that Lake Kariba will reach its full mark in 2021 after significant inflows from southeast Angola and northwest Zambia started to reach the lake.
The regions supply the bulk of the water for Lake Kariba while northwest Zimbabwe and parts of southern Zambia provide negligible amounts even during a good rainy season.
Initially, ZRA had predicted a longer period for the lake to fill, a prediction now being revised as the Angolan flood water finally arrives.
ZRA hydrologist Engineer Pherry Mwiinga on Thursday said evaporation losses and the rationed allocations for the power stations mean that the lake will not fill up this year:
Our forecast indicates we may receive up to 55 billion cubic metres as inflows this year.
That, plus current storage, should give us about 65,5 billion cubic meters. However, take out losses to evaporation at approximately 25 per cent of this storage, this leaves us with 49,1 billion cubic metres.
The top 13 metres of water of a full Lake Kariba is referred to as “live water” or usable water which is available for power generation. However, there are almost 11 metres to go before the lake is full.
