EVEN WORSE POWER PROBLEMS?

[Phil Cooper]

Most of us have probably heard the reports about the Kariba Dam being in a state of disrepair.

We may think that because the dam is in far flung Zambia and Zimbabwe that we will be unaffected; think again. If you are involved in the Southern African Region, you will be affected.

The Kariba Dam currently produces 40% of the region's hydroelectric power. If the dam fails, then we will permanently have stage one and stage two load shedding for eight years as authorities won't be able to replace the electricity generation fast enough.

The situation will be significantly compounded as 181 billion cubic metres of water travels towards Mozambique. This will affect the Cahora Bassa Dam which is another major electricity generator for South Africa.

The Kariba situation was labelled as critical five years ago and still nothing has been done to start the process to amend it.

[HR Solutions]

Thank goodness for my inverter

[SilverNodashi]

Luckily we live off-grid

[tec0]

Luckily we live off-grid

@ SoftDux-Rudi >> Soon to be...

Till then we are going to have SERIOUS problems going forward Phil is right this can get bad fast. I am also worried about it.

[SilverNodashi]

@ SoftDux-Rudi >> Soon to be...

Till then we are going to have SERIOUS problems going forward Phil is right this can get bad fast. I am also worried about it.

The bigger problem, once everyone has survived the floods, is that due to electricity shortage, other services like water, transportation (no more diesel / petrol available), banking, etc will also be affected due to the loss of electricity on a large scale. Communications (i.e. phones, mobile and internet) will stop working after a few weeks. Some ISP's backup generators will run out of diesel and mobile base stations / towers will have run out of battery backup (solar panels could have helped a LOT in this case).

I don't think we fully understand the scale of impact, yet.

[tec0]

The bigger problem, once everyone has survived the floods, is that due to electricity shortage, other services like water, transportation (no more diesel / petrol available), banking, etc will also be affected due to the loss of electricity on a large scale. Communications (i.e. phones, mobile and internet) will stop working after a few weeks. Some ISP's backup generators will run out of diesel and mobile base stations / towers will have run out of battery backup (solar panels could have helped a LOT in this case).

I don't think we fully understand the scale of impact, yet.

We will see what the future holds i guess... I am not to worried... That said it wouldn't hurt buying a bicycle and getting use to using it... but true... no power means no water, no food nothing...

[Blurock]

Heaven forbid, but the chances are more than 50% that Kariba will fall. It will have a major impact on Cahora Bassa and of course will result in a major catastrophe and regional disaster.

This is a good example of what procrastination can do. I am afraid that we will see much more of this kind of deterioration in Africa and in our own country. Maintenance is not an African word.

[tec0]

Heaven forbid, but the chances are more than 50% that Kariba will fall. It will have a major impact on Cahora Bassa and of course will result in a major catastrophe and regional disaster.

This is a good example of what procrastination can do. I am afraid that we will see much more of this kind of deterioration in Africa and in our own country. Maintenance is not an African word.

I tend to agree with this one, if you look at the state of some of our power-stations... SCARY comes to mind. Seriously scary... There is no other word, the plant is falling apart right in-front of you. Literally! But it doesn't seem to concern the management as long as they can afford there big cars big homes and get paid big money the plants can sink or swim.

Thing is i wonder what is going to happen when there is nothing left? Blame it on the bunny?

[Phil Cooper]

No. Blame it on apartheid.

[tec0]

No. Blame it on apartheid.

look carefully at the bunny...