HENRY KAPATA SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MEASURE OF THE LEVEL OF WATER AT KARIBA
Henry Kapata writes….
Hello,
Will respond to your questions upon engaging experts.
✅ 1. What instruments do they use to measure the level of water Mr KAPATA.
ANS: Currently they have manual gauges that are read three times a day at all our monitoring stations.
✅ 2. What is the process of water traveling from the source.
ANS: The source of water into Kariba is from various sources, that is rainfall on the reservoir, inflow from the mainstream Zambezi River and its tributaries. The movement of the water in the catchment as it moves from various sources into the reservoir, in case of the immediate catchment, the effects is almost immediate on the reservoir, but for the mainstream Zambezi River much of the water reaches between the months of March to May every year depending on the antecedent environmental conditions.
✅ 3. When does Kariba allocate water to the two utilities when we’ve had good rains.
ANS: The allocation of water at Kariba for power generation is done annually, this is usually done after the global, regional and National rainfall forecasts season is done. This is done in August/September of every year.
✅ 4. Current water levels with the continuous rains.
ANS:The current water levels are steadily increasing as the rain season progresses, though lower than last year for the same period. As of 13th January 2025, the Lake Lavel is 475.94 or 3.09% live storage while last year it was higher at 477.42 or 13.31% live storage.
✅ 5. How long does the water take to reach power stations.
ANS: The contribution of water in the reservoir is through rainfall on the reservoir, the mainstream Zambezi River and its tributaries. The movement of the water system in the catchment as it moves into the reservoir and eventually the power stations varies: in the case of the immediate catchment, the effect is almost immediate, but for the mainstream Zambezi River much of the water reaches between the months of March to May every year depending of the antecedent environmental conditions.
✅ 6. Who monitors the water levels on ZAMBEZI River?
ANS: The mandate of water resource management and monitoring according to the law is a preserve of WARMA, but the Authority has interest in terms of monitoring the volumes of water that enters Lake Kariba Reservoir; hence the Authority has a number of monitoring stations with full time employees of the Authority that take daily water levels for sustainable water management.
✅ 7. When do power stations capture the water into reservoirs.
ANS: The usage of water by the power stations is done through water allocation, the power stations draw their annual water allocation daily by generating power while monitoring of the daily water usage of against allocation.
HK