The African Development Bank (AfDB) is under pressure from environmental lobby groups to withdraw support for the controversial Grand Inga hydropower project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is under pressure from environmental lobby groups to withdraw support for the controversial Grand Inga hydropower project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Lobby groups say that the $80bn project, aimed at generating 40,000MW of power on the Congo River, is overpriced and susceptible to corruption and other risks.
The project, driven by three construction giants from Spain and China and expected to be funded by the AfDB and the European Investment Bank, among others, has been embroiled in controversy since it was announced. This led to the withdrawal of the World Bank as a potential sponsor in 2016.
The project is not expected to begin producing power until 2024 or 2025.
In 2014, the SA government approved the ratification of the Grand Inga Treaty with the DRC. The treaty would entail SA buying more than half the power generated by the first phase of one of the world’s biggest hydroelectric projects.
However, according to International Rivers, an organisation which aims to protect rivers and the rights of communities that depend on them, the project should be halted.
Ange Asanzi, Africa campaign co-ordinator at International Rivers, said on Thursday that AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina must use the opportunity of his visit to the Inga 3 site to withdraw the bank from further financial support for “the tainted hydropower project”.
Adesina arrived in the DRC on Monday for a four-day official visit at the invitation of the head of state, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo.
“Inga 3 carries an indefensible cost to the people of the DRC and SA,” said Asanzi.
In his address at the bank’s annual general meeting last week, Adesina emphasised an agenda for African integration that prioritises the effect of development on people, increases access to services and results in a better quality of life.
“The Inga 3 construction project is irreconcilable with the bank’s vision of African integration, plagued as it is by a lack of transparency and a failure to conduct adequate human rights due diligence,” said Asanzi.
In the DRC the project will displace 30,000 people in communities living along the Congo River, separating local farmers and fishermen from the river that sustains their livelihoods, but with no tangible benefit for the Congolese people, she said.
The vast majority of the power generated from the dam will supply international corporations and the DRC’s biggest buyer, SA.
“This comes at a staggering cost that South Africans can illafford,” said Asanzi.
Researchers at the University of California published a recent modelling study which estimated that the Inga 3 project will cost SA consumers R4.3bn a year.
“At a time when South Africans desperately require cheap, plentiful and reliable power — and investment in local SA jobs and skills development
— the SA government’s ongoing support for Inga 3 is untenable,” Asanzi said.
“Like the World Bank, the African Development Bank must sever its ties to the disastrous Inga 3 project. Neither the bank nor SA’s support for the Inga 3 hydropower project in the DRC will meet the imperative of responsible, sustainable development across Africa.”
R4.3bn What SA consumers will pay every year for Inga 3, according to modelling at the University of California