Lake Kariba water rise aids power yet stays low
A bump in Lake Kariba’s water levels is barely moving the needle on a regional power crisis that droughts have been hammering for years.
Lake Kariba water levels inch up
- Kariba sat at 477.74 metres as of March 2026.
- Last year’s reading clocked in at 476.93 metres.
- Usable storage hit 10.08 billion cubic metres.
- That 15.57% capacity still trails 2019’s 39.99%.
Zambezi River Authority tempers expectations
- ZRA called the uptick stability, not a comeback.
- Catchment-area rainfall helped keep the trend positive.
- The dam’s operating band runs from 475.50m to 488.50m.
- Current storage keeps squeezing regional power grids.
Drought fallout lingers over the reservoir
- Lake Kariba feeds hydropower for Zimbabwe and Zambia.
- Years of weak rainfall have gutted generation capacity.
- Rolling blackouts keep battering both countries’ economies.
