Water levels in Lake Kariba have reached a record low, which could force the closure of a dam that supplies electricity to Zambia and Zimbabwe , where the lake sits.

Due to the severe drought that central and southern Africa faced as a result of the El Niño climate anomaly, the amount of water in the lake dropped to its lowest level in the 65 years since the dam was built. This primarily affected traditional agriculture.

“It’s getting worse. The water level is dropping. Sometimes you see an island where there shouldn’t be one. This isn’t the first time the lake has dropped. But the way it’s dropped now is worse than the last time it happened in 1996.”

As a result, governments began to ration the amount of water that passes through the dam, which led to large-scale power outages and a decline in economic growth as a result.

Zambia’s power company Zesco says even the rainy season has not restored the lake’s water levels to acceptable levels, prompting both countries to build coal-fired and solar power plants and explore the possibility of building hydroelectric power plants on other rivers in the country.