Mozambique project a disaster waiting to happen
A giant damming project in Mozambique could leave the entire region without water in order to provide huge quantities of electricity for export, according to environmentalists.
The $2billion Mphanda Nkuwa Dam on the Zambezi River would shatter the already delicate balance in the region, potentially leading to an agricultural disaster zone which would leave millions without water, according to a new report released by the International Rivers Network (IRN).
Directly, it has already been acknowledged that 1,400 people would have to be moved and that around 200,000 farmers would lose their livelihoods once the project was completed, placing the project on a par with recent Chinese plans to divert vast tonnages of water across the country, which will displace 330,000 people by 2011.
Alongside the displacement of local farmers, the dam would exacerbate fluctuations in river levels, effectively rendering huge swathes of the are downriver uninhabitable.
In return for the damage, the dam would produce 1,300mw of power in a country where the vast majority of the rural population is not electrified and is unable to benefit from such megaprojects, meaning most of the energy produced would go for export to urban areas abroad.
The total electricity use of Mozambique is just 350mw annually – around 4.6% of the population have access to power, almost entirely in urban areas.
Due to the high-cost requirements to bring power from the dam site across country, it is thought that the building of the dam could damage rather than improve the prospects for the country’s electricity infrastructure, by diverting investment into providing for the dam which could be better spent elsewhere.
There are also serious safety fears, as an earthquake zone is nearby which has not been researched to see what impact a serious quake could have on the dam itself.
The IRN’s research, led by renewable energy expert Mark Hankins, suggests that by contrast, decentralised renewable energy would be cheaper to build, actively allow for the electrification of towns and villages throughout the region and is easily implemented.
“It’s time we begin to address our own energy needs, and in ways that will protect our important natural treasures like the Zambezi River,” said Anabela Lemos, the director of the Maputo-based NGO Justica Ambiental (JA!). “Clean, decentralised energy for all should be the top priority, not damming the Zambezi to support energy-hogging industry and cities in South Africa.” JA! is the sponsor of the report.
The report backs a similarly damning report from the WWF in 2004, which predicted that local subsistence agriculture would lose $10m annually from the project while seeing “no direct benefits in the short term … alongside heavy social and environmental impacts”.
Current projections would see construction for the dam starting in 2010. It is primarily being financed by the Chinese state, with the government holding just 5% of the stock in the project in exchange for an offer to make the dam near tax-exempt.
