Communities Sign Petition Against Inga 3 Dam

Camp Kinshasa

Photo by International Rivers

Communities that will be affected by the Inga 3 Dam created a petition in 2014 to call attention to potential social and environmental problems that the dam could bring. Some 5,000 people from these communities signed the petition. The communities make clear they wish to have their rights and freedoms as provided for by the DRC constitution respected, and to have past injustices on large dams in DRC addressed (specifically the loss of land by six clans resettled for the construction of Inga 1 & 2 dams). 

They are opposed to the relocation of communities that will be affected when the Bundi Valley is flooded for Inga 3 Dam. They do not want to be uprooted and do not want to lose their livelihoods and cultural cohesion. Five villages downstream of the Inga Dams rely on fishing and there is a high risk of them losing this livelihood.

The communities feel that even though the Inga 3 project is only in the early stages, their rights to prior and informed consent have already been violated, and that so far they have not been sidelined in this planned development. They are objecting to the imposition of this development on them.

Finally, the communities have made a number of demands that include; establishment of a commission to adjudicate the land right issues between the customary landowners and the national utility, SNEL: a proportion of the profits of Inga 3 be used for the community development, and that the community be included in the negotiations, represented by a local group of their choice.

Read the petition in English

Read the petition in French

The petition was addressed to:  

Mr Thubi Balenda, President of CODICLI

Photo by International Rivers

• His Excellency Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa;
• His Excellency Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa in Pretoria; 
• The President of the World Bank Group, Dr. Jim Yong Kim in Washington DC;
• His Excellency the President of the Senate in Kinshasa; 
• His Excellency the President of DRC National Assembly in Kinshasa;
• His Excellency the Prime Minister, DRC Head of Government in Kinshasa; 
• Honorable Minister of Energy and Water Resources in Kinshasa; 
• Her Excellency Honorable Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals in Kinshasa; 
• Honorable Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism in Kinshasa; 
• His Excellency the President of the Provincial Assembly of Bas-Congo in Matadi; 
• His Excellency the Governor of the Province of Bas-Congo in Matadi; 
• The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the World Bank Group in Washington DC; 
• The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank in Tunis 
• The President of the European Union in Brussels; 
• The Chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva; 
• The President of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in Banjul / Gambia; 
• The Administrator of the territory of Seke Banza in Seke Banza; 
• Heads of Sectors of Lufu and Isangila in Nsanda and Isangila;
• Head of the City of Inga in Inga;
  
• The Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Electricity Company (SNEL) in Kinshasa; 
• The Provincial Director of the National Electricity Company (SNEL) in Bas-Congo in Matadi