SOUTHERN AFRICA: Mega hydropower projects urged to meet demand

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

WINDHOEK, 26 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Southern Africa is looking to mega-hydropower projects to meet galloping regional demand, which could outstrip surplus generation capacity by 2007.

Electricity needs in the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) have grown by three percent each year over the past decade. Total installed capacity in the region is about 52,000 megawatt (MW); 40,000 MW - or 90 percent - is supplied by the South African utility, Eskom.

But with South African domestic demand also rocketing, the surplus capacity available for export is set to fall, said Vincente Veloso, chair of the SADC Power Pool (SAPP), which groups the region's state-owned electricity companies.

"We need new electricity generation investments in member states and grid connectivity, so that countries can import and export electricity to each other to overcome shortfalls at peak demand," he said.

Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Zambia are already connected via the SAPP. New transmission lines are needed to add Malawi, Tanzania, and the hydro-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola to the regional power grid, said Veloso.

Representatives of SADC governments, electricity suppliers and financial institutions met in Namibia last week to discuss the major power generation projects on the drawing board for accelerating regional development and economic growth.

The most important SAPP scheme involves unlocking the vast hydropower potential of the Congo River at the Inga Rapids, which could deliver 40,000 MW - enough to secure the subcontinent's electricity demands for decades.

"We need some US $7 billion for the first two phases - including the 3,000 km transmission line from Inga, which is 150 km east from the Congo River mouth - through Angola to Ruacana on the Namibian border," said Vika di Panzu, chief executive of the DRC power utility, Societé Nationale d'Electricité.

The initiative is known as the Western Power Corridor project. To implement it, the Westcor company was formed in 2003 by the power utilities of Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Angola and the DRC, each holding a 20 percent stake. The shareholding agreement was signed this month in Gaborone, Botswana.

"It is a unique project because it is managed by five countries and it will bring electricity to the whole of the African continent when fully developed," said Thulani Gcabashe, Eskom's managing director. "We want to secure sustainable electricity supply at affordable rates."

Westcor will also develop the hydroelectric potential of the Kwanza Basin in northern Angola, estimated at 6,000 MW.

Zambia plans at least two new hydropower projects on the Zambezi River; Botswana and Swaziland want to construct coal-fired power stations near their coal deposits, and Namibia will decide on the go-ahead for its huge offshore Kudu gas field next year.

But environmentalists have raised the alarm over the potential ecological damage the rash of dam construction could cause, along with the associated health risks of waterborne diseases such as malaria and bilharzia.

"People have suffered from the downstream impacts of dams, including loss of fisheries, decreased water quality and a decline in the fertility of farmlands, forests and coast-protecting wetlands," argued Lori Pottinger, Africa director of the US-based International Rivers Network (IRN).

"An energy development model for Africa based on investing tens of billions of dollars in a single mega-dam, like Inga in the DRC, and thousands of kilometres of associated power lines, stands in stark contrast to the continent's most pressing energy needs," Pottinger told IRIN.

Eighty percent of Africans lack access to electricity, yet the great majority live in rural areas that are hugely expensive to supply through conventional grid extension schemes, she noted.

"Smaller-scale, decentralised systems to electrify rural communities should be used," she suggested.

Decentralised systems that meet basic needs were more likely to reduce poverty and help nations achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goal of slashing poverty by 2015, with solar energy systems well suited to off-grid communities.

"Cogeneration from sugar-cane waste and other renewable crops have huge potential for meeting rural communities' energy needs," Pottinger added.

But for the moment, big dams are the solution preferred by governments and power utilities to meet the region's growing needs, despite their social and environmental impact.

Lesotho and South Africa announced last week that they would start the second phase of a hydropower project in Lesotho's highlands, although local communities would be consulted to avoid the complaints that followed the two projects in the previous phase.

Hundreds of residents lost their land and homes when the Katse and Mohale dams were built for the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), which supplies water to South Africa's economic hub around Johannesburg.

Construction of the first two dams was overshadowed by a corruption scandal, and the scheme's former chief executive is currently serving a 15-year sentence for graft.

Hundreds of protestors marched through the Lesotho capital, Maseru, last week to hand a petition to the joint Lesotho-South African commission on the project. They said their compensation packages for losses caused by the LHWP were paid late or not at all.

[ENDS]