Lisbon, March 17, 2026 (Lusa) - The current rainy season in Mozambique has allowed Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), one of the largest in Africa, to more than double the water levels stored in that reservoir, following historic lows caused by drought.
"We are now recovering. We are approaching 50% [of capacity]. Probably by the end of the rainy season, the end of this month, we will be very close to 50%, and we are coming from 20%," the HCB chair, Tomás Matola, said on the sidelines of the RENMOZ - Renewables in Mozambique conference in Brussels.
The event runs until 18 March 2026 and was attended this Tuesday by Mozambique's president, Daniel Chapo, who presented renewable energy projects in Mozambique, trying to attract European investment to accelerate the country's energy transition.
Matola acknowledged that the recovery was mainly influenced by the rains "upstream of the reservoir", with the tributaries being "decisive for this recovery".
"We will produce throughout the year, using this storage. We will reduce our output until the end of the year, but we believe that in the next rainy season we will have another recovery until we reach the desired storage levels again," he said, expressing his conviction that this reservoir and other projects in this energy hub, such as the nearby new Mphanda Nkuwa dam, also on the Zambezi river in Tete province, with 1,500 MW, will guarantee the needs of ongoing projects and neighbouring countries, such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Eswatini.
"Particularly for South Africa, where the level of demand is very high. It is much higher than all the other countries in the region. Therefore, with these projects, we believe that we will indeed be an energy hub in the region. Our vision until 2034 is that we can achieve a capacity of up to 4,000 MW [currently 2,075 MW]," he added, referring to plans for a new power station and a solar farm.
Electricity production in Mozambique fell by 25% in 2025, due to the lack of water in the HCB reservoir following the "worst rainfall record" in 43 years, according to official information reported on 11 March 2026.
In a 2025 budget execution report, the government points out that the country's global production of electric energy was 14,408,381 MegaWatt-hours (MWh),76.7% of the annual plan and 25.4% lower than in 2024.
"The low production was largely due to the poor performance of the hydroelectric plants, which produced 72.3% of the expected amount, a decrease of 30.7% compared to the same period in 2024," it said.
Matola added that the country "is the largest producer of hydroelectricity in Southern Africa" and that "almost all of its production comes from HCB, (...) complemented by other small dams under the management" of Eletricidade de Moçambique.
In 2025, according to the report, the hydroelectric plants generated 11,207,934 MWh, 30.7% less than in 2024, a performance explained "largely by the effects of the El Niño phenomenon that has affected the HCB plant since 2023".
"The lack of rainfall in the Zambezi basin [where HCB operates] reduced the availability of water in the main reservoirs of the country (Corumana, Mavuzi and Chicamba), culminating in the 2024/25 hydrological year with the worst rainfall record of the last 43 years," he said.
The lack of sufficient energy at affordable prices was also at the centre of a dispute that led Mozal, the country's largest aluminium smelter, to suspend operations on 15 March 2026, affecting more than 4,000 direct and indirect jobs.
PVJ/ LYT // ADB.
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