Why is Zambia forced to live without electricity?

A Zambia, a country in Southern Africa, is bearing the brunt of the consequences of climate change. The government declared emergency state. Because drythe country, which has 20 million inhabitants, must impose electrical power restrictions. To produce electricity, Zambia mainly uses hydroelectric plants built on the Zambezi River and its tributaries, as reported by LeMonde, and shares water resources with the neighboring country, Zimbabwe.

The global water crisis could cost up to US$58 trillion!

“We cannot rule out the possibility of falling to one of the lowest levels ever recorded”, reveals the Zambezi River Authority, which manages water distribution. The rainy season – which normally runs from November to April – will come to an end in a few weeks, but February 2024 was completely dry.

A rainy season… without rain!

The artificial lake Kariba supplies the largest hydroelectric plant in the country. Its filling capacity is only 15%! To compensate, the national company Zesco is obliged to ration electricity for 8 hours a day. Obviously, this rationing has a “significant impact on supply”.

Given that the lack of rain has serious consequences for agriculture, half of the corn harvest could be lost. For the President of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, this is a “national emergency and disaster” situation caused by climate change and the El Niño phenomenon (which reduces rainfall in Southern Africa).

It is extreme drought “puts agricultural or copper exports in danger, whose production is threatened by the shortage of electricity, with negative repercussions on the local currency and an increase in the cost of all transactions denominated in dollars, including debt”, explains a Zambian banker. Zambia is the second largest copper producer in Africa.

Rivers dry up along with the economy

A significant financial loss that adds to the economic crisis that the country has suffered since 2020. Especially because the country suffers an injustice: it does not contribute in any way to global warming, but pays the consequences every year. This is because the global increase in temperatures has been twice as fast as the average in Southern Africa over the last 50 years.

In its 2018 report, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) clearly identified this area of ​​the world as one that would be most affected by extreme temperatures and drought. And indeed, Zambia has suffered repeated droughts every year since 2012, which affect the inhabitants. And in disaster after disaster, families have fewer and fewer ways to recover. Without outside help, the situation can only get worse.

“This year, the agricultural season is ruined and the vast majority of farmers who depend on the rain have lost hope of sowing“, says the deputy director of the NGO Care in Zambia, Christopher Mzembe. The government is asking for international help. Zambian farmers will receive more drought-resistant seeds in order to limit the consequences of the current drought.