Economy, Energy

Mozambique has vast hydroelectric potential. The Cabora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River, completed in 1974, operated far under its optimum generating capacity from the early 1980s to the late 1990s because of damage inflicted by the civil war. In 1998 Mozambique announced that it would soon produce enough electricity to meet the country’s needs, and Cabora Bassa began exporting power to neighboring countries. Total electrical production in 1999 was 2,300 million kilowatt-hours.