By Ebi Kesiena
Zambia suffered a major power outage affecting most parts of the country over the weekend, after a problem occured at an important hydropower station.
Spokesman of State-owned power company Zesco, John Kunda, explained that there has been loss of generation at Kariba North Bank hydropower station and this has affected supply to a large geographical area of the country.
Residents in the capital, Lusaka, as well as Kitwe and Ndola in the copper belt said they have been without power.
According to Kunda, Zesco is “rebooting the system” but it could take three to four hours before supply is fully restored.
Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) said in a statement that its mines, tailings leach plant and Nchanga smelter were affected by the blackout.
“Emergency generators have been switched on to stabilise operations at the smelter and the Tailings Leach Plant, Flood gates have been activated and closed at Konkola underground mine, while we have shut boreholes underground to limit the flow of water into the mine and avert flooding,” KCM stated.
