Zambia–Zimbabwe border

The Zambezi line

Livingstone reached the Victoria Falls in 1855, and Britain declared a protectorate over the region in 1888; it was run by Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company until the 1920s. When Southern Rhodesia was split off in 1895, its boundary was defined simply as the Zambezi, from Hunter’s Road to the Portuguese border. West of the falls the river crosses a shallow, swampy plateau basin; east of them it runs through gorges, then out onto the Mozambique plain.^[1]

The two Rhodesias joined Nyasaland in a federation from 1953 to 1963, during which the first stage of the Kariba Dam was built. Its 160-mile reservoir drowned the river’s old course, so an Order in Council effective on 1 January 1964 redrew the line: along the middle of the river, but through Lake Kariba in straight lines between fixed points. At the Victoria Falls, where the line crosses west of Livingstone Island, it shares the islands between the two sides by name. Northern Rhodesia became independent as Zambia later in 1964.^[1]

When Kariba runs low

Kariba, 200 km south of Lusaka, is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume. In 2024 a severe drought brought by El Niño and worsened by warming temperatures left it so low that only one of the six turbines on Zambia’s side could run, at less than 10 percent of normal output. Zambia relies on Kariba for more than 80 percent of its electricity, and its people were left with a few hours of power a day at best.^[2]

“85% dependency on hydro is obviously a risk”^[2]