Inga 3 likely to set SA back R 10 billion per year for hydropower – report

Importing hydropower from the much delayed Inga 3 Dam project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is likely to set South Africa back R 10 billion per year once the project gets off the ground. This is according to the latest report on the feasibility of the project by global organisation, International Rivers. The Regional Director for the Africa Programme at International Rivers, Siziwe Mota, tells the OFM Business Hour, that the other con to the project is that it is likely only going to begin producing power in 2032, essentially lowering the estimated value of the project to South Africa. Construction on the dam is at this stage yet to get underway.

The ten year treaty between South Africa and the DRC for the former to purchase power from the proposed Inga 3 project dates back to 2013. Nearly ten years in, there hasn’t been “any meaningful progress and everything that has happened since has dimmed the prospect of anything materialising from the treaty” says Mota. “Everything that has happened” includes more interested and powerful parties entering the bidding for the project, upping the chances of South Africa being kicked out anyway. An interesting point made by the organisation is that transmitting the power through Zimbabwe and Zambua is result in an estimated loss of 500 MW of power.