Energy poverty

The big, bad dams of past decades are back in style. In the 1950s and '60s, huge hydropower projects such as the Kariba, Akosombo and Inga dams were supposed to modernise poor African countries almost overnight. It didn't work out this way.

Este informe de International Rivers desafía el enfoque "de arriba hacia abajo" para proyectos de infraestructura que promueve el Banco Mundial y el poderoso Grupo de los 20, y presenta una mejor alternativa. El acceso al agua potable y a la electricidad es esencial para una vida saludable y productiva. Sin embargo, los proyectos de infraestructura de arriba hacia abajo del pasado han dejado a más de mil millones de personas pobres en la sombra. En la República Democrática del Congo, los donantes han gastado miles de millones de dólares en represas y líneas de transmisión en el sitio

September 2008 World Rivers ReviewAcross Africa, millions of businesses and residential consumers have been hit by costly energy blackouts -an ongoing problem now exacerbated by a major energy shortage in South Africa. Poor planning, decades of under-investment, a slowness to adopt energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources, and stalled large supply projects are all to blame. But because of the continent's huge "electricity divide" - only one in four is plugged into the grid - the electricity crisis affects just a sliver of all Africans. Away from the grid, lighting, cooking and

Large hydro dams do not "lift all boats"—in fact, they increase the gap between energy haves and have-nots. Electricity passes over a village resettled for Kariba Dam, Zimbabwe Karin Retief Africa’s large dams (more than 1,270 at last count) have consistently been built at the expense of rural communities, who have been forced to sacrifice their lands and livelihoods to them yet have reaped few benefits. Large hydro dams in Sudan, Senegal, Kenya, Zambia/Zimbabwe and Ghana have brought considerable social, environmental and economic damage to Africa, and have left a trail of "developmen