[Debate] Reminder of CCS seminar today: Baruti Amisi on world's biggest infrastructure project, Inga at DRC

[Patrick Bond]

***CCS Seminar: Will the Inga Hydropower Project meet Africa's 
electricity needs?
Speaker: Baruti Amisi
Date: Friday 20 April 2012
Venue: CCS Seminar Room 602, 6th Floor, Memorial Tower Building, Howard 
College *

*Topic: *The world's single-largest energy investment - the Inga 
Hydropower Project (IHP) on the Congo River in the Democratic Republic 
of the Congo - will remain a high-profile megaproject for decades to 
come. In fact, the increasing electricity needs from power hungry 
countries and the need to preserve the environment in European countries 
and thus to destroy natural ecosystems in the poor countries, and the 
DRC in particular, have intensified the pressure on this unique 
geological and hydrological site to produce the cheapest hydropower in 
the world, notwithstanding a construction price tag in the range of $80 
billion. In terms of output, the dam will be three times larger than 
even China's Three Gorges. But civil society locally and globally is 
asking difficult questions:  (1) Is not further development of IHP 
premature or too ambitious?, (2) Who are the winners and losers in the 
IHP?, and (3) Is there a net benefit for the those on the ground and 
throughout the host county? Electricity is desperately needed, because 
only 6 percent of the DRC population have access. But the financial 
performance, net recognised income, the subsequent proceeds from it , 
and socio-economic and environmental legacy of Inga 1 and 2 together 
suggest that the DRC is not prepared for a project of such a magnitude. 
Current capacity - political, institutional, organisational, managerial, 
financial and technical - and socio-economic instability represent 
significant risk for investors. Prejudiced agreements insisted upon by 
investors will undermine benefits to the country. Secondly, IHP 
electricity could undermine the African poor, given the price and 
unaffordability. The main material beneficiaries will be multinational 
corporations and wealthy individuals who already received the returns of 
the investment and rewards in Inga 1 and 2. Hence a better approach 
would be to refocus the project's efforts to cover rehabilitation, 
transparent financial management, and improvement of the internal 
controls that were seen to be failures in Inga 1 and 2. Otherwise, 
instead of supplying electricity to the people of Africa, the IHP will 
be remembered as Africa's largest white elephant.

*Speaker:* Baruti Amisi is a doctoral candidate at the UKZN Centre for 
Civil Society and Development Studies discipline, and a leader of the 
KZN Refugees Forum. He has recently returned from two months of field 
research in the DRC.

<http://www.rhizomia.net/>
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