Inga dam deal is a grand delusion

As load-shedding continues to affect lives,and headlines decry the deepening crisis at Eskom, it is deeply worrying that the government is gearing up to bankroll the largest electricity project in Africa: the Inga 3 Dam in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .

Finally, in October 2013, the two countries signed the Grand Inga Treaty, in which South Africa pledged to purchase 2500MW if Inga 3 was built. This is about 5% of South Africa’s current installed capacity. Last year, the DRC government gave the contract to build the project to two construction consortiums, led by large Chinese and Spanish companies.

But,without a guaranteed buyer through a power purchasing agreement, these lenders will not open their cheque books. And because the project would cost more than twice the entire current national budget of the DRC, it needs an outside guarantor: the South African government. In any case, Inga 3 is not expected to be completed until 2028, by which time the prices for renewable sources of electricity will have dropped even further.

Congolese and international nongovernmental organisations, such as International Rivers, have called for a stop to Inga 3 in its current form, complaining about the lack of transparency in the management of the project, environmental hazardsand the displacement of thousands of Congolese. Many people will be displaced for a second time, having had to move to make way for Inga 1 and 2, for which they are yet to be compensated.

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