Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), in the centre of the country, has announced that ‘management measures’ are underway to deal with the effects of ‘the severe and continuous drought, influenced by the occurrence of the El Niño climate phenomenon’ affecting some southern African countries, including Mozambique.
In a statement consulted by DE, the company said that these measures have been in place since July and are intended to guarantee ‘a potential achievement of the production planned for this year, offset by exceeding the targets for the first half of the year’.
‘The measures, implemented on a scientific basis and in accordance with the technical data available, are aimed at safeguarding the hydraulic-operational safety of the dam and related infrastructures, as well as the fulfilment of the commercial commitments made and guaranteeing the availability of water for production in the coming years,’ it explained.
HCB said that in these measures it is bearing in mind ‘the sustainability of the project, balancing the need to preserve water storage with hydroelectric generation and that it is collecting and systematising all the relevant information, both hydro-climatological information on the Zambezi basin and information on the management of upstream dams, recognising that the southern African region in general continues to experience one of the worst droughts in the last 30 years’.
‘The measures, implemented on a scientific basis and in accordance with the technical data available, aim to safeguard the hydraulic-operational safety of the dam and related infrastructures, as well as the fulfilment of the commercial commitments made and guaranteeing the availability of water for production in the coming years.’
In the document, the institution pointed out that at the end of the first fortnight of September the HCB reservoir’s quota was set at 312.87 metres, corresponding to 44.1% of its useful capacity, ‘a more comfortable situation compared to the upstream dams, which have much lower storages and are implementing one of the most severe restriction regimes in energy production, a fact that negatively affects the release of water downstream’.
‘Based on the official seasonal climate forecasts of high probabilities of normal rainfall with a tendency to above normal over the Zambezi basin during the 2024-25 rainy season, favoured by the La Niña phenomenon, we foresee great possibilities for a reasonable recovery of Cahora Bassa’s storage, which could allow satisfactory hydro-energy production to be achieved in subsequent years,’ he said.
The Mozambican state holds 90 per cent of HCB’s share capital, since the reversion to Mozambique, agreed with Portugal in 2007, while the Portuguese company Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) has a 7.5 per cent share and Electricidade de Moçambique has 2.5 per cent.
The Cahora Bassa reservoir is the fourth largest in Africa, with a maximum length of 270 kilometres and 30 kilometres between banks, occupying 2,700 square kilometres and an average depth of 26 metres.
Cleusia Chirindza
