“I don’t wanna be President in office when catastrophe takes place.” says President Hichilema

President Hakainde Hichilema says he does not want a catastrophe during his tenure as President.

He told a meeting of energy stakeholders yesterday at State House that it was clear that the Zambezi River Authority was incapable of regulating the use of water at Kariba Dam, a development that has caused serious consequences.

“Clearly it is not in debate that Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) has not managed that resource properly. They have failed to ensure compliance by the two parties, North Bank and South Bank. As early as May, theyknew that one party was drawing more water basically which was not made available to us,” President Hichilema said. “And honestly speaking this President speaking is an engaging one. A President who wants to know what is going on. I believe my counterpart [Zimbabwe President Emmerson Munagagwa] wants to know what is going on

because energy is a security issue. So as the Minister of Green Economy and Environment [Collins Nzovu] said the assumption is if Zambezi River Authority had managed

the allocation of water properly, we shouldn’t be in this situation where we are but we are not starting a bilateral conflict. We aremature enough to say there are weaknesses in the governance structure because if Zesco drew more water, there is nothing that Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) can do and that is what essentially came into picturefor those who were there (Kariba tour) and that is an unacceptable.”

He said he did not want to be President when there was a crisis.

“…quickly remedy that situation. I don’t wanna be a President sitting in office when a catastrophe takes place. I don’t want that,” President Hichilema said.

Meanwhile, on Sunday President Hichilema travelled by road from Siavonga to Lusaka due to visibility issues after arriving late at Kariba from Maamba.

President Hichilema was initially supposed to land at Siavonga Secondary grounds at 14:00 hours to tour Kariba North Power Station after a meeting with Zesco  and Zambezi River Authority(ZRA) at Zesco Sunset Villas.

The President however overran his schedule by over two hours but insisted on going to the dam to see the situation for himself.

This was after the master of ceremonies at the meeting held at Sunset Villas announced that due to time limitation, the President would nottour the largest power plant in the country.

“I am not sure it is possible but I would love to go down there to have a view. And so if time allows to internalise what is going on,” he insisted.

President Hichilema requested engineers to state if it was possible for him to go in.

“I would rather go by road, I have to do it,” he said.”

His security had to make quick amendments to its detail including informing its counterparts in Lusaka to mount route lining.

But due to limited time President Hichilema could not visit the underground area that houses turbines.

Earlier, the President announced that his ministers and some State House staff had failed to accompany him because they had an emergency landing in Monze due to bad weather.

The President was only received by information permanent secretary Kennedy Kalunga, officials from Zesco and Zambezi RiverAuthority (ZRA).

President Hichilema said the Kariba North Power Station and the Zambezi River Authority were are not managing the asset properly.

This was after ZRA executive director Munyaradzi Munodawafa informed him that the South Bank was overusing water at Kariba Dam.

He also informed the President of the impending threat at the dam around the power plunge pool.

“I think the issue that we need to start with is we are not managing the asset properly. Let us not beat about the bush. We are not managing this asset well. We as countries [Zambia and Zimbabwe], the Zambezi River Authority entrusted to manage this asset on our behalf by your own admission Sir, I am really being polite, I think the governance arrangements are not serving us well. There is no question about that,” President Hichilema noted. “First the repair works, I searched what you described. This is a serious risk before we talk of our economic associated risks, the risk to lives. If I got you right, I am old fashioned myself, I take down notes, the younger ones think they have got memories but they tend to forget much quicker. My notes indicate that we could lose three million lives. If the projection is that, I believe it would more than that, if we had to lose this asset.”

He said the repair works must be concluded immediately.

“The pictorial view you showed there is not something we can sit on anytime longer than today because anything could happen. I am a farmer myself. I build small dams for my cattle, if you have a hole at the bottom of the wall, your dam is gone. A little slippage there, the dam is gone. Now you can imagine what can happen. This could be a catastrophe,” he said.

“The cabinets of the two countries need a proper and full briefing on this situation. I think the Presidents shouldn’t have to come here.

The Presidents of the two countries must be briefed appropriately for information but also to support the remedial works that are required.

I believe you may have the technical capacity to do that, to ascertain the support that you need. Political support, I mean if anything happened here governments will collapse. The stability of our countries will be affected and it will breed other things… but I believe he too is concerned. I will be speaking to him tonight or...”

And Munodawafa said Zimbabwe had been written over its over usage of water but to no avail.

“We informed the utilities and said guys ‘we are informing you that we have a ceiling of allocation’.

In May 2022 we realised there was a trend of over utilisation which we did inform the utilities about. This communication we have on a

quarterly basis, indicated that one of the utilities that is the South Bank, the Zimbabwe side,  started over using so we issued a red flag. They indicated that ‘give us until end of July maximum beginning of September there about we are going to have another generation  unit which will give us two generating units and then from October, we will stop generating at Kariba to ensure that the levels are returned’. At that time Zesco did follow a proper programme. Came October, we still had by beginning of September from there, we made a lot of presentations in letters.”

He said ZRA was facing challenges because it had no access to inlet facilities of the two countries.

Source: Mast