Zambezi River Basin

Inter-BasinWater Transfers

Energy Resources The estimated hydropower potential of the Zambezi River is in the order of 20 000 MW of which only 4 684 MW has been developed (Hirji et al. 2002). About 40 possible new hydropower plants with a total installation capacity of more than 13 000 MW have been identified in the basin. About 85 per cent of this capacity is on the Zambezi River itself while the remainder is on its tributaries. Close to half the mapped potential is in Mozambique, about 25 per cent in Zambia and about 20 per cent in Zimbabwe. A little more than five per cent of the potential is divided between Angola, Malawi and Tanzania (SARDC 2008). Cahora Bassa, Kariba and Kafue hydropower stations, and Hwange coal power station are some of the electrical power suppliers in the Several riparian countries have identified potential projects transferring water to or from the Zambezi basin to meet various demands. Botswana, for example, is planning to use water from the Zambezi basin for domestic and industrial use within and outside the basin. This project, called the ‘Zambezi Water Transfer

Scheme’, is in the conceptual phase (SADC and ZRA 2007). The Bulawayo–Matebeleland– Zambezi Water Supply Project in Zimbabwe is at its feasibility stage. Although Bulawayo is outside the basin, further water supply to a larger area of Matebeleland may become inter- basin transfer with the Limpopo Basin.

Zambezi basin. These power stations feed into the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), which was inaugurated in 1995 (O’Leary et al. 1998) to create a more efficient regional market for electricity. The power pool was created as a common power grid because of the distribution of power sources in southern Africa, with a large reserve of low-cost hydroelectricity in the northern part, especially the Inga Reservoir in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Cahora-Bassa Reservoir in Mozambique. Other factors that led to the establishment of the power pool are the large reserves of thermal power in South Africa and the hydropower from the Kariba Dam on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe which, being in the middle of the regional system, plays the “buffer” role.

Zambezi River Basin electrical infrastructure

TANZANIA

ZAMBIA

ANGOLA

MALAWI

Z a m b e z i

L u n g u e B u n g o

K a b o m p o

L u a n g w a

C u a n d o

K a f u e

S h i r e

Z a m b e z i

M a z o e

NAMIBIA

S h a n g a n i

MOZAMBIQUE

BOTSWANA Power plant Main infrastructures Power line Source: SAPP, AfDB 2009. Africa’s Intra-Regional, Inter-Regional And Inter-Continental Electricity Trade-Technopolitico-Economic Aspects And Future Prospects NEPAD-OECD, Africa Investment Initiative, African Development Bank, Johannesburg Figure 3.3 ZIMBABWE

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