Water supply and demand scenarios for the Zambezi River Basin: Climate change and upstream development impacts on new hydropower projects in the Zambezi Project

The “Climate Change and Upstream Development Impacts on New Hydropower Projects in the Zambezi” project is funded by the Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), a UK Department for International Development (DfID)-funded partnership.

The objective of this analysis has been to assess how upstream changes in climate and irrigation demand would affect water availability for major downstream Zambezi Basin hydropower plants. The analysis covers major existing plants (i.e. Kariba, Cahora Bassa and Kafue Gorge Upper), extensions to existing plants (i.e. Kariba North and South bank, Cahora Bass North Bank) and major new plants (i.e. Batoka Gorge, Itezhi-tezhi, Mphanda Nkuwa, Kafue Gorge Lower, and to a lesser extent Boroma and Lupata).

Citation: Spalding-Fecher, Randall, Francis Yamba, Hartley Walimwipi, Harald Kling, Bernard Tembo, Imasiku Nyambe, Arthur Chapman and Boaventura Cuamba. 2014. Water Supply and Demand Scenarios for the Zambezi River Basin. Climate Change and Upstream Development Impacts on New Hydropower Projects in the Zambezi Project. Report for Climate & Development Knowledge Network. Cape Town, University of Cape Town.