Another dam on Zambezi river is dangeorus-Report
The International Rivers Network has released a report condemning a Mozambican project that aims at putting a dam on the Zambezi river and build a huge hydro-power station at Mphanda Nkuwa.
The network has said while the choice is to create more power, the region would be without water in the future critiquing that it is a choice Southern Africa could face in a few years if current plans to build more large dams on the Zambezi proceed.
According to the Non Aligned News Agency (Nam news network)the network noted that the US$2 billion Mphanda Nkuwa Dam on the Zambezi River which will mostly serve neighbouring South Africa’s power needs, would be like exporting social and environmental impacts in Mozambique, and ignoring climate-change warnings that show major hydrological problems ahead for Southern Africa.
The Zambezi, Africa’s fourth largest river, is expected to be especially vulnerable to climate change. Millions of people depend upon it for their livelihoods, said the network.
In the report which will be officially released in Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo on Oct 19, author Mark Hankins, a Nairobi-based renewable energy expert, describes how that country could develop a domestic electricity supply system based on market-ready, clean-energy options that are low-cost, rapidly implementable, and well-suited to the geographical distribution of local demand.
The plan, the report says, focuses on distributed renewable energy and energy efficiency that would meet the energy needs of the far-flung parts of the country that do not now have access to electricity. Most of the technologies described in the report are also well-suited to meeting the growing need of urban areas already tied to the grid. Currently, 80 percent of Mozamibique’s population does not have access to electricity, the author also observes.
“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.
Mark Hankins also said, “As long as the Mozambique’s power planners focus on the huge consumer next door, they will never adequately meet the needs of their own country, which remains largely off-grid and unconnected. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
The report notes there is significant potential for green biomass with five large sugar farms that could contribute considerable bagasse from sugar cane waste to bio-mass fired electricity, adding that converting sugar waste into biofuel could put another 60MW on the grid that could extend electrification to rural areas.
The report also details the nation’s potential for solar, wind, small-scale hydro, and biomass. It describes key energy efficiency measures that could help Mozambique reduce its energy load going forward, and also describes steps needed to help its energy sector develop these kinds of decentralized energy systems.
“Eskom is the fifth largest power company in the world and South Africa has been very successful in giving people access to electricity. Green energies tend to be more expensive, but they create jobs and don’t damage the environment. In Kenya electricity costs three times what it does in South Africa. Getting South Africans off cheap electricity is like getting Americans off cheap gasoline,” notes Mr Hankins.
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Greenman. please note that a levy is a tax. The levy is imposed on you as a consumer of electricity not because you are making profits. I never said that water is not lost through evaporation. What I said is that evaporation is not consuptive. After all if there is no water evaporating there can be no rains. Evaporation is part of the hydrological cycle.
No, I’m not talking to myself – my last post was a reply to Senior Engineer RTD!
Thanks Greenman, you make some interesting points, but you may have misunderstood me. I agree that the profits from hydropower can in theory be used to fund rural electrification. But if Mozambique is investing 3 bn $ on Mphanda Nkua and the transmission line to Apollo, what chance is there of significant investment being made in other forms of renewable energy and rural electrification in Mozambique over the next 10 years? Mphanda Nkua will close down other energy investment at a time when Mozambique needs to diversify supply in response to climate change.
On Itezhi-tezhi, I thought the original dam was designed and built to allow storage for a freshet? Why else would ZESCO’s licence specify one? Anyway, when I suggested Itezhi-tezhi provided an example of consumptive use, I was not referring to the evaporation, but rather to the consumption of water for storage at a time when it is required for other purposes. The importance of these purposes is recognised in the water licence, which ZESCO ignores. It’s no good releasing the water out of season: it doesn’t benefit the wetland goods and services that many people downstream depend upon; indeed it harms them much as a pollutant would.
Finally, you said in your original post “…hydropower is non-consumptive unlike irrigation…” If you read what you said, you were making a general point and not one specific to Mphanda Nkua. I realise little water will be lost by evaporation from Mphanda Nkua, but the amount lost from Kariba and Cahora Bassa is considerable. The losses did not occur before the dams were built, so they should be regarded as ‘costs’ to the projects in terms of consumptive use. Can you agree, the water lost by evaporation at Kariba is not available for the turbines at Cahora Bassa?
Greenman, I did not say that the Mphanda Nkuwa dam should be constructed at the expense of rural electrification through renewable energy. What I said is that these projects i.e. renewable energy and large hydro can coexist and in fact large hydro can help fund rural electrification as is the case in Zambia by putting a levy on the electricity tariff for rural electrification. If a country is blessed hydropower I dont not see any reason why a country can not export electricity to generate foreign reserve. I also said the Mphanda Nkuwa dam is a run-of-the river project and its reservoir surface area is 100 sq km compared to 2,600 sq km for Cahora Bassa which means that evaporation is very minimal compared to Kariba and Cahora Bassa. The reason Itezhitezhi dam cannot meet a freshet of 300 cubic metres in March for 4 weeks to mimic the natural floods before construction of the dam or so-called environmental flows is not because of evaporation but because the reservoir capacity is inadequate and can be remedied by heightening the dam to increase the reservoir capacity. In any case evaporation is always there from a reservoir whether the water is used for electricity, water or irrigation. This is first time I am hearing evaporation, a natural phenomenon essential to the hydrological cycle being referred to as consumptive use.
As I read it, Hankins and Justica Ambiental are suggesting that all Mozambique’s energy eggs shouldn’t be put in the hydropower basket and that the money to be spent on Mepanda Nkua should rather be spent on a range of other renewable energy projects – firstly to power up rural Mozambique rather than South Africa, and secondly, to reduce the risk that drought in the Zambezi river basin will cause load shedding across southern Africa. These seem to be issues worth debating. Ask the Kenyans whether so much money should have been invested in hydropower there!
And Senior Engineer RTD, it’s not strictly true that water for hydropower is ‘non-consumptive’. There is significant evaporation from L. Kariba and Cahora Bassa; and if you store water for hydropower generation it may not be available for for environmental purposes. As a case in point, ZESCO has never honoured its water licence at Itezhi-tezhi by releasing the environmental flows that were part of the project design and the fisheries, wildlife and cattle production on the Kafue Flats have suffered as a result.
Kwathukummawa.It is not us the local engineers who are blinded.It is our politicians who are blinded. These pseudo engineering consultants will use threatening language such as the dam will fail because the dam is an earthquake zone. Who says you can not construct structures in earthquake zones. If this was the case structures would not have been constructed in areas like Japan, LA etc. All you do is that you take into account the earthquake factor. In addition to scaring our politician the report will be sweetened with some money like the RP Capital consultant saga.
The Southern African Region is facing a very serious power generation capacity deficit in the not to distant future. The “Tunthemba” Mini Hydros, Biomass, Clean coal, wind, and other alternative power generation methods are all welcome proposals but what’s critical is for the region to set up Robust high capacity generation facilities which will guarantee long term power generation, which when well interconnected, will reduce the cost of power and increase access by the inhabitants of the region; and a hydro is the best answer.
Of course, Economic Hitmen have to earn their fees by purposely punching holes in well intentioned plans to divert planners from devising real solutions to real problems to perpetuate dependence, but this should not blind our intelligent local engineers from seeing through their vile intentions.
Not so fast gents, upstream the Zimbabweans have been planning and pushing for atleast 2 projects both based along the Zambezi river…. 1 hydro power project and 1 Bulawayo water project.
Also further upstream word has it the Namibians are planning a sugar plantation/s along the Zambezi river aswell.
It’s time the Zambezi was managed and shared equall(similarly to the Nile Commission) such arbitrary decisions will lead to conflicts in the near future, both economic and military.
Nonsense, the sponsors of the report have an interest! There is nothing wrong with this project, i think some people would not like to see other countries developing. Tell me how can the dam cause ‘shortage’ of water?
I agree with you Jenin Zulu. Hoever beause the Mphanda Nkuwa is a run-of-the-river project it can not be used for flood control. What is conveniently glossed over is the fact that the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydropower project is a run-of-the-river project. A run-of-the-river project has little or no storage. It uses the water in the river and hydropower is non consumptive unlike irrigation where the water is “consumed”. The water therefore still flows in the river. I have come across articles that allege that the construction of the dam will lead to water shortages and that it will trigger earthquakes because it is located in a seismically active area. As explained above there will be no water shortage. Earthquakes induced in this manner are referred to as reservoir induced seismicity. If the reservoir of the Cahora Bassa Dam has not induced major earthquakes with a reservoir with a surface area of over 2,600 sq km in the same seismically active area how is the Mphanda Nkuwa going to result in major earthquakes with a reservoir with a surface area of 100 sq km? It has been suggested that Mozambique has abundant renewable energy especially wind energy. It has one of the longest coast lines in Africa. Renewable energy is ideal for rural electrification. I don’t see any problem with renewable energy coexisting with large hydro. In addition a rural electrification levy can be imposed on large hydro as is the case in Zambia to fund rural electrification. In any case if the electricity consumption in countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe is not met by large hydro it will be met through coal firing power stations as these countries have abundant coal reserves, which is a worse scenario.
The daming of the Zambezi is primarily meant to benefit South Africa just like the Cabora Bassa.Its like those markets in Lusaka town centre and Kamwala, which belong to investors until after 65 years.What benefit is that to the council?
Economic hitmen at work
Jein
I don’t think it can work that way, however i think these are the efforts that our leaders are supposed to be spending their efforts on.Have you heard about the Inga Dam in DRC and thought about the effects that is going to have on our country.Its tricky my man!!!
I don’t see the danger the headline is screeming about. Aint this the same Mozambique that suffers almost yearly from floods. Wouldn’t it be killing 2 birds with one stone by the dam helping to control the flooding and also produce electricity the whole region needs so badly.
I bet this guy is just justifying his consultancy fee!