Climate emergency in Zambia: No rain, no water, no power

The effects of climate change are multiplying across the African continent, from floods in East Africa to drought in Southern Africa. A humanitarian crisis is underway in Zambia as the worst drought in decades grips the nation. Many families see their crops fail, leaving little to eat and no stores for the coming year. Millions of others who rely on the region’s harvest will also be affected.

Power and water are affected

A lesser-known fallout of the drought is the effect on the country’s power supply.

84% of the country relies on power from the massive hydroelectric plant at Lake Kariba, the world’s largest manmade lake by volume. As of early November, the lake has just over 4% of its usable storage, and only one of its six generators is operational. This has resulted in month after month of little to no electricity in the nation’s largest city, Lusaka.

We spoke with Nora Idonije, Utility Partnerships Coordinator for ROCKBlue and local resident representative for Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company (LWSC), about the situation in Lusaka (see the video below).

“The power company promised to provide power to its customers for three hours a day, but they failed to meet that threshold,” said Ms. Idonije. “Some people are receiving an hour or two, some just 30 minutes. There is no consistency.”

The effects are widespread. There is no refrigeration, necessitating trips to the market every day. Charcoal is needed to fuel cooking fires, but price gouging and shortages make it difficult to obtain. Most businesses cannot operate without power. A few have solar panels, but most rely on generators and the fuel to run them—and in a country where more than half live below the poverty line, these things are often economically out of reach.

Compounding the problem exponentially is the fact that the power outages are also affecting LWSC and the country’s access to clean water. That means limitations on dependable drinking water supply. A lucky few residents have private boreholes, but some of these are drying up and of poor water quality. Much of the population has no choice but to line up at water kiosks—or worse, gather water from shallow, unregulated, and polluted wells. Some have even resorted to digging by hand into dried-up riverbeds.

The routine of life for many has shifted to finding, toting, and storing water. Often, these tasks fall on children, who may have to miss school. And if the water is questionable, residents need charcoal or chlorine to purify it—items they may not be able to afford. “A lot of diarrhea cases are springing up because of insufficient water for proper hygiene,” reports Ms. Idonije. “Five to seven families—30 to 40 people— often share a public toilet, and there’s insufficient water for personal hygiene.”

Things were even worse a year ago when Lusaka experienced the worst cholera outbreak in decades. Even though cholera can be cured by aggressive intravenous fluids and common antibiotics when diagnosed early, a lack of adequate sanitation and limited access to health care left over 700 people dead. “There just aren’t enough medical facilities,” Ms. Idoniji stated. “They had to open up a clinic inside a stadium.”

Searching for solutions during this water and power crisis

Desperate for solutions, Zambia is considering a rare move—doubling down on fossil fuel. Plans were announced in July for the construction of a $400 million coal power plant that would double the country’s power from coal to 600MW. Other Southern African countries, also heavily reliant on hydroelectric power, could follow suit. According to Ms. Idonije, there is talk of building a solar generation plant. “But that’s not something that’s going to happen in a month or two,” she commented. “What we need now is advice on changing our way of living. We need immediate solutions to help people survive right now and cope with the times.” One of these, she suggests, is prioritizing water distribution. “If we have cooperating partners that could help supply free water to those critical areas where people cannot afford to put in their boreholes, that will help stop the spread of diarrhea diseases right now.”

Our partnership with Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company (LWSC)

At ROCKBlue, we help improve millions of urban residents’ health and economic well-being in low- and middle-income countries. We do this through our partnerships and public utilities’ support, helping them optimize their operations and finances.

We have been working with LWSC since 2018, coaching and training local managers.

Here are some of their accomplishments:

• Added 38% more customers and improved water quality to 95% compliance.
• Increased water coverage by 9% and increased sanitation services by 15%.
• To date LWSC has collected more than $800,000 in overdue debts, increasing their operating cash nearly three-fold and almost tripling profits.

Our support has helped increase LWSC’s resiliency, and they are better positioned to bounce back and meet the community’s needs when this crisis ends. Help ROCKBlue build long-term solutions for the most vulnerable populations on Earth.

Watch our interview with Nora Idonije, Utility Partnerships Coordinator for ROCKBlue and local resident representative for Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company.