Project Opens Flood Gates of Resentment

Winding its way through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the Zambezi River is a prized resource. Its waters provide fisheries, tourism, and increasingly, electricity. But as Frederico Katere reports, Mozambique’s attempt to dam the river is pushing environmentalists into deep end.Despite advice from environmentalists and scientists that the construction of another hydroelectric dam on the Zambezi River will intensify flooding, the Mozambican government has decided to go ahead with the project.

The government announced that the Mepanda Nkuwa dam is to be constructed at an estimated cost of $1.3 billion. It will be the third major dam on the Zambezi River, only 70 kilometres downstream of the existing Cahora Bassa dam.

But the proposal to further alter the flow of the Zambezi for electricity is causing some experts to worry.

It was only last year that massive flooding killed some 100 people and displaced thousands in Tete. The death and destruction was blamed on poor darn management, especially, the simultaneous opening of the floodgates on the Cahora Bassa dam and the Kariba dam further up river in Zimbabwe."I am appalled at the decision to go ahead with the dam," says Professor Bryan Davies, an ecologist and Zambezi expert at the South African University of Cape Town.

"I have received the Environmental Impact Assessment on it, but basically the decision on Mepanda Nkuwa is ill–advised, expensive and is probably politically motivated," he told Gemini News Service.

Davies believes the government is looking to score political points by showing off a major project that they claim will help the economy. Generating more hydroelectricity, they say, will mean more jobs and more income. Davies disagrees.

"It would be better to spend the money for more hydropower (by) upgrading the north bank of Cahora Bassa. I do not see who is going to buy the power, unless it is used to make Coca Cola tins at the new aluminium smelter (in Maputo). That, in my opinion, is an inappropriate development if ever there was one," he said.

Government sources, who did not wish to be named, argued that the construction of Mepanda Nkuwa is necessary because it will break the dependence of some towns in the central part of the country on motor engines and coal for electricity.

The government says most of the 2,000 megawatts to be generated from the dam will be consumed locally, with the rest sold to neighbouring countries. Mepanda Nkuwa will also break a monopoly on Mozambique’s hydroelectric power currently enjoyed by the South African company, Eskom.

Of Cahora Bassa’s 3,750 mw output, Eskom controls 82 per cent while only 18 per cent is in the hands of the Mozambican government.

"There is need for the government to have control over power that is generated locally because if it is left to foreign companies, they can switch us off any time," said the sources.

Still, any talk of new dams isn’t sitting well with those who will be living next door to it. Antonio Mandiftma, a 32–year–old resident of Tete province working as a

messenger in Maputo, says what the people of the province desperately need are local solutions – not large–scale investments.

"What people need are jobs, not projects that will in the end employ only a few people. People of this poverty–ridden province should be assisted in setting up income generating projects in order to alleviate (poverty) in the community," he says.

And while the government promises to create 3,000 new jobs in building the dam, Madiftma says in reality the benefits will only be temporary." Even if they talk of local people benefiting from jobs on the new dam project, it will only be those who are educated and trained for specific jobs who will be employed full–time. Most of the local youths would only get jobs in the construction phase – they are dropped off when the project starts to operate."

Scientists say that no matter who is operating the darns along the Zambezi, they will have to do a better job in regulating the flow, as improper management of the existing darns has caused problems along the Zambezi for years.

In 1978, 45 people were killed when authorities suddenly opened Cahora Bassa’s floodgates, sending a surge of water downstream.

In February 1997, the dam’s gates reportedly came close to failure under pressure of fast–rising floodwaters. When engineers finally opened the gates, fierce vibrations are reported to have occurred – which the engineers claim could have weakened the structure of the dam. Any consequences of future dam mismanagement will not be limited to the immediate area.

It is estimated that prawn and other marine life industries could be worth $30 million at the mouth of the Zambezi if the release of the Cahora Bassa darn was managed properly. With the addition of the new dam, that possibility is all but erased.

"I am very, very worried that further dams such as the Mepanda Nkuwa will simply regulate the flow of the Zambezi even further than at present. The coastal fisheries and estuarine prawn industry has diminished because of mismanagement of flows from Cahora Bassa. No one listens," complains Prof Davies.

If Davies is correct – as he was when he predicted the 2001 floods – the future of the Zambezi under the control of the Mepanda Nkuwa is grim."It is probable that more flooding won’t come for a while as you are in drought again, but come it will, sooner or later. It is inevitable."

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