THE European Union (EU) has availed €113 million (about US$120 million) towards the rehabilitation of Kariba Dam as part of its Global Gateway initiative to improve the country’s electricity generation capacity.
This was disclosed yesterday during a tour of the project site by EU ambassadors to Zimbabwe and Zambia Jobst von Kirtman and Karolina Stasiak respectively, Energy minister Edgar Moyo and his Zambian counterpart Peter Chibwe Kapala, among other delegates.
Zimbabwe and Zambia jointly own Kariba Dam where both generate electricity under the management of the Zambezi River Authority.
Kirtman said the rehabilitation of Kariba Dam is part of the EU’s initiative designed to tackle the most pressing global challenges in a sustainable way.
“The rehabilitation of this dam can potentially contribute to over 50% of the overall electricity production in Zimbabwe. The partnership between the EU, the Zambezi River Authority, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Swedish International Development and Co-operation as well as Zambia and Zimbabwe is an investment not in concrete and steel, but in the future of Zimbabwe and Zambia,” he added.
Zimbabwe operates a 1 050 megawatt hydroelectric power facility on Lake Kariba.
Last year, the two countries slipped into a crisis after water levels on Lake Kariba dropped drastically, triggering debilitating power crises on both sides of the Zambezi.
The EU said the rehabilitation of Kariba Dam was critical because a potential collapse of the dam could kill over 500 000 people because of its domino effect on other dams thereby affecting almost three million people with an estimated economic impact of more than US$ 20 billion.
Source Newsday
