Construction of Batoka hydroelectric dam has doubled to $5 billion. “From the feasibility studies we are doing, we are now talking of about US$4,5 billion, and the appetite (to fund the project) is there,” said Munyaradzi Munodawafa, chief executive officer of Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), Zimbabwe-Zambia joint venture company in charge of managing the Zambezi River basin.

With its 2,400 MW, the infrastructure which is shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe, should allow both nations to meet their respective power demand. However, funding which has delayed the project is not the only guarantee to the dam’s construction. It also depends on water levels of Zambezi River where it is to be built.

Truly, low rainfall in the region has already impaired power production at the Kariba dam, another infrastructure which the two countries share. Production at the station recently slumped to 285 MW from 750 MW as water levels fell.

Batoka dam will be built in the framework of a private-public partnership involving both nations and private companies which are in charge of construction. Now, the project’s continuation depends on the completion of feasibility studies and environmental impact studies which were launched in 2014 and are to end next July. They cost $4.9 million which funded by World Bank.

The Batoka dam project was conceived 23 years ago and was to start running in 2001.

Gwladys Johnson