Officials say that power was interrupted in Zambia and Zimbabwe at about the same time late Sunday, as investigations are underway regarding the cause of the widespread outages as electricity restoration continues.
Electricity supply went out on Sunday evening in both nations, which have been experiencing around seven hours of power daily for several months due to drought affecting their primary source of hydropower, the Kariba Dam.
“The government wishes to inform citizens that a power outage took place last night at 20:15 hours, impacting the entire nation,” the Zambian government announced in a statement.
No fatalities or major incidents were reported at Zambia’s primary medical facility, the University Teaching Hospital, as backup systems functioned properly, it noted.
Power was restored to the hospital after 30 minutes, although they did not specify when the rest of the country would return to normal electricity supply.
“Technical teams are actively investigating the cause of the power failure and are working on measures to avoid similar occurrences in the future,” it reported.
On Monday, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) stated that its national grid “suffered a system disturbance last night, leading to a complete blackout.”
According to reports, the power outage began in Zimbabwe at approximately 8:25 pm. By the following morning, ZPC explained that most load centres had resumed operations.
Both countries currently receive about seven hours of power daily due to decreasing water levels at the massive Kariba Dam, their primary source of hydroelectric energy located on their border.
As of November 18, the available water level for electricity generation stood at 2.40 per cent, according to the Zambezi River Authority, which oversees the dam.
The shrinking national power supplies in both nations have prompted many to seek alternative solutions, primarily solar energy.
