27/03/2024
Around 2005, Loadsheding existed, power use to go around 17 and come back around 19 though it wasn't a big deal as was just seen as an understandable routine sometimes.
In 2008, there was a scenario where we had heavy rainfull, we even had serious floods in Kabwata then power disappeared. Following day, we where told that weeds actually encroached at the kafue gorge turbines as a result, they had to turn off power to mitigate the situation or risk a serious breakdown of the system, then we started experiencing serious loadshedding for about a month or two. There was actually unverified report's (rumours) that when servicing the equipment, the service parts that were used at the gorge where not of the same quality as those they removed as such, problems started becoming more frequent. In any case, we were later told it was resolved.
Around 2010, 11 and 12 we officially had loadshedding, mostly power would go around 17 and come back by 20:30 to 21hrs. The target was the peak cooking hours. This went on for a while but it could stabilise abit and come back along the year here and there.
In 2015 June, Loadsheding became a national disaster and for the first time in history we began to experience stage 4 loadshedding, this is were power would go for 8 to 12hrs in a day sometimes it could go for 16hrs... since then, almost every year there has been a certain period we get seriously subjected to stage 3 to 4 loadsheding and we have been living with it until now 2024.
If you calculate the period i have tabulated here, you will notice that we have had loadshedding for almost 20years now. However, it has been more rampant and deep in the last 10yrs.
The question is, how and why have we kept relying solely on hydropower solutions? What has caused us fail to use other renewable power sources? In Zambia, We have vast bare land that could have housed serious solar power plants that could have helped us aliviate this problem.
Infact, bare land in Zambia is way bigger than the land that is occupied.
Yes alternative sources are actually expensive and all that, but at the same time looking at the period in context, how have we failed to allocate money towards this type of agenda ?