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.