Harare, Aug 12: At least 15 people died and 27 are missing after a passenger boat capsized on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe on Tuesday, the National Disaster Management Agency said. 77 people were rescued and have reached a small island in the lake. The agency said boats were being sent to bring back the rescued.
Zimbabwe’s state broadcaster ZBC broadcast footage of speedboats heading towards a boat that appeared to have capsized in the lake. A helicopter was seen flying overhead.
A search and rescue team has also been deployed to the vast lake, which forms part of the border between Zimbabwe and neighbouring Zambia.
The Zimbabwe Civil Defence said in a statement that based on the registered ticket sales records, it was only possible to confirm that there were 114 adult passengers and five crew members on board. It is not known how many children under the age of ticketing were on board. Therefore, the number of children on board could not be counted, the statement said.
The maximum carrying capacity of the boat is 90 people, the agency said. It has recommended that the accident be officially declared a disaster.
Local MP Mutsa Murombedzi shared a video in which she said people on the shore waved goodbye to the old-looking boat as it set off. People from rural areas use the boat to travel across the lake to the town of Kariba. The journey usually takes about five hours, she said.
In the video, some on the shore expressed concerns about whether the boat would be able to withstand the heavy waves that rise in the lake.
Zimbabwean police had earlier said a rescue operation was underway, but gave no further details.
Lake Kariba is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume. It was created by damming the Zambezi River in the late 1950s and early 1960s, blocking its flow. This slowly filled the valley, forming a huge lake. The lake is now more than 200 kilometers long and up to 40 kilometers wide in some places.
Lake Kariba is shared by Zimbabwe and Zambia. The official border between the two countries runs through the middle of the lake.