“The lowest water level in half a century” and a series of earthquakes

In December, the ground shook seven times near the world's largest artificial lake, Kariba, where a power plant was built to supply electricity to Zambia and Zimbabwe. The strongest quake with a magnitude of 4.9 was recorded at the beginning of last week and occurred about 20 kilometers from Lake Kariba, but the greatest concern was the quake on Monday with its epicenter under the lake itself.

The authorities managing the reservoir explained on Saturday that “these quakes were triggered by fluctuations in water levels, which are currently at their lowest level in almost half a century.” They also reassured that the construction of the hydroelectric power plant was still solid and recalled that since 1963, when the dam began to be filled, over a thousand earthquakes had occurred in the region.

Many independent experts do not agree with the government's position, according to which the dam on the Zambezi River and the power plant powered by it are at risk of collapse. The dam was built in the 1950s with a defect. The movement of water falling from it was incorrectly determined, and over the decades it had carved out a huge pool under the foundation of the dam, over 90 meters deep.

– The structure is weakened and, fortunately, the drought has caused historically low water levels in the lake, because if the reservoir filled with water quickly, the dam could collapse just as quickly – said Manase Banda, a Zambian hydrologist.

The dam was built by the British colonial authorities with white settlers in mind. For its needs, tens of thousands of indigenous people were evicted from the region and have not been compensated to this day. Although colonialism ended in Zambia in 1964, people living near the dam have no use for it because they have no access to electricity. In Zambia, almost 90 percent of the population currently lacks it due to drought.