World's largest dam proposed in Congo

22 April 2008

But the problems dogging the project are massive, ranging from political instability including the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) recent civil war to local objections and, not least, the massive costs involved. In fact, the earliest proposal for such a project had been made as far back as 1980, but had to be shelved due to civil strife in the region.

In order to consider the feasibility of the project, representatives from seven African governments and the world's largest banks and construction companies are brainstorming in London under the aegis of the World Energy Council (WEC).

This grand project, appropriately named the Grand Inga project, is expected to cost up to $80 billion and benefit not only the nation of origin, but also other countries in the region. Power would be transmitted to other countries via a giant new distribution system to Egypt in the north, Nigeria in the west and to South Africa, directly improving the lives of half a billion Africans without access to electricity.

Plans for the project include a dam 205 metres (670 feet) high, a reservoir more than 15 km (9 miles) long and a plant with a capacity to produce 320 terawatt hours of electricity yearly.

The Grand Inga project would be built on the Congo River alongside two existing hydroelectric plants and is expected to begin operating between 2020 and 2025. That is, if it manages to get financial and political support. As a first step in that direction, the WEC is calling for finance for a feasibility study to be done as soon as possible.

The two existing projects mentioned above are the Inga I and Inga II commissioned in 1972 and 1982 respectively. But both have fallen into disrepair and now only manage to produce about one quarter of their joint capacity of 1.7 gigawatts of electricity. The little power they are producing is going exclusively to power the mines of Katanga, with none to local people in a country where 92 per cent of the population is without electricity.