A
case study of one development project – Cahora Bassa, Mozambique
Source – CIA Fact book 2013
Dams are often seen by countries as a great way of raising the
development level of a country.
They offer energy for other industries, the energy they
produce is environmentally “clean” and the construction of such large
structures generates instant employment in construction and its
associated industries.
Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world, attempted to
use dam building as a path out of poverty through the construction of
the Cahora Bassa Dam. This is a good example of bilateral aid, as
although Mozambique now has full ownership of the dam, initially
Portugal had an 82% stake and Mozambique only 18%.
Mozambique also had to contract much of the work to private
companies, diminishing their share of profits further.
As can be seen in the table, Mozambique desperately needs a
boost to its development, with low HDI, high infant mortality and low
life expectancy.
The dam blocks the 4th largest artificial lake in Africa,
and is one of 3 major dams along the mighty Zambezi River which passes
through Congo, Angola, Zimbabwe and finally Mozambique.
It has created a lake that is 292km long, up to 32km wide and
a maximum of 157m deep.
History
The dam was started in the 1960s by the then ruling Portuguese
colonial government, in agreement with South Africa that a High Voltage
Direct Current (HVDC) Transmission System would be put into place to
move some of the power to South Africa.
The lake began to fill in 1974 but unfortunately a long civil
war (post-independence from Portugal) prevented use of the scheme.
It was the transmission lines and towers that were damage
limiting use of the electricity that Cahora Bassa could produce.
Finally, in 1995 renewal work began and by 1997 the dam was
back in full operation but not at full capacity.
Pros and cons
The dam provides an important power import facility to the South African
grid. It transmits 1920 MW of power from the Cahora Bassa generating
station on the Zambezi River in northern Mozambique. One megawatt can
power a thousand US homes on average, so the dam is very good at
producing electricity.
However, only 1%
of homes in RURAL Mozambique have a direct electricity supply, so locals
have not benefitted from the energy produced by the dam. This is because
most of the power is sold to South Africa, which boosts the national
economy but does not benefit citizens at a local level.
This is unfortunate, as the dam has enough potential to meet
most of Mozambique’s power needs.
The dam could
produce more energy, but its potential is limited by other dams upstream
that keep river flows very low. At other economic levels, whilst the
local shrimp industry has been destroyed a Kapenta fishery industry has
developed, harvesting 10,000 tonnes in 2003. The potential for the dam
to reduce flooding has also been a disappointment, with floods
downstream of the dam in 1978.
Mozambique has also had floods on other rivers in 2000 and in
January 2013 (which killed 36 and displaced 70,000 people
- BBC).
These floods are an environmental limit to development, which
the dams such as Cahora Bassa were hoped to reduce. |
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Think about it |
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