![[Congo] Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, the Republic of Congo's minister for energy and water since January 2005, at a meeting for ministers of energy in central Africa, Congo, Brazzaville, April 2005.](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20069284.jpg.webp?itok=SY8WLlfk "The Republic of Congo's minister for energy, Bruno Itoua. He says the oil-rich country is among the weakest in Africa in providing electricity to its people.")
The Republic of Congo imports most of its power from the Inga Hydroelectric Dam in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. Much of this power is supplied to urban areas and hardly serves the rural population, in turn fuelling rural-to-urban migration.
To overcome the power deficit, the government has started to build an energy grid linking the north and south of the country. The largest part of this project is the US $280-million Imboulou Dam, some 200 km north of the capital, Brazzaville, which is expected to be commissioned in March 2009. The government aims eventually to provide uninterrupted power to the majority of the rural population.
"We decided to bring the rate of access to electricity to more than 75 percent in urban areas and 50 percent in rural zones by 2015," Bruno Itoua, the energy minister, said.
About 52 percent of the country's 3.1 million people live in urban areas and as rural migration continues to rise, national authorities say, the state electricity utility, the Société nationale d'électricité, is finding it more difficult to provide uninterrupted power. However, critics say the lack of adequate electricity supply is largely due to political neglect.
"I don't think that the state, which announced a one-trillion-franc [US $2 billion] national budget, lacks the money to allocate funds to the water and electricity sector," Maurice Angoubolo, a retired Brazzaville civil engineer, said.
For people in the countryside, the situation is dire. On average, rural areas have a maximum of four hours of electricity from 6 p.m. and, even then, only the main towns are served. This is because rural areas depend on generators, but often lack the necessary fuel. Therefore, areas away from the district town remain in almost total darkness.
"This places the country among the weakest in Africa in terms of access to electricity," Itoua said.
Rural dwellers depend on paraffin oil and candles for lighting, as well as wood and charcoal for heating and cooking. Such is the environmental impact that the country still loses at least 7,000 hectares of forest each year to logging for firewood, according to the Central Africa Forestry Commission, a regional body.
The executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Hama Harba Diallo, said such logging was one of the factors contributing to the potential desertification of the Congo River Basin.
In addition, 70 percent of the rural population depends on casual labour for farming. If this pool of farm workers left for the towns, agricultural produce would diminish.
The lack of rural electrification means residents resort to less efficient sun-dried methods of food preservation, especially for meat and fresh-water fish.
"If we did not we would lose our food and die of hunger," said Delga Onina, a hotel manager in Ewo, in the department of the Cuvette Ouest, about 700 km northwest of Brazzaville.
Effort to improve supplies
To improve supplies of electricity to the locality of Impfondo, the main town of the northern department of Likouala, the government in 2005 provided two power generators with a combined capacity of 1,000 kilowatt hours. This was in addition to the 425 kilowatt generator that already serves the town's 30,000 residents.
"We are always without electricity. Sometimes we even have to conduct surgery by torchlight," Dr Louis Gambara, the Likouala director of health, said.
The southwestern areas of the country used to receive electricity from the Moukoukoulou Dam but war from 1998 to 21002 destroyed the Mindouli electricity centre, paralysing business in the Pool Department.
"Even drinking water remains insufficient, despite aid from humanitarian NGOs," Martyrs Mpassi, a teacher in Mindouli, said.
In a 2005 report, "The Pool: A neglected crisis", the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs acknowledged that water supply and electricity facilities were almost non-existent in several localities and in the Pool. Even if water facilities were in place, power would still be needed to pump the water into storage tanks.
[Congo: Rural residents left high and dry for lack of clean water]
lmm/oss
To overcome the power deficit, the government has started to build an energy grid linking the north and south of the country. The largest part of this project is the US $280-million Imboulou Dam, some 200 km north of the capital, Brazzaville, which is expected to be commissioned in March 2009. The government aims eventually to provide uninterrupted power to the majority of the rural population.
"We decided to bring the rate of access to electricity to more than 75 percent in urban areas and 50 percent in rural zones by 2015," Bruno Itoua, the energy minister, said.
About 52 percent of the country's 3.1 million people live in urban areas and as rural migration continues to rise, national authorities say, the state electricity utility, the Société nationale d'électricité, is finding it more difficult to provide uninterrupted power. However, critics say the lack of adequate electricity supply is largely due to political neglect.
"I don't think that the state, which announced a one-trillion-franc [US $2 billion] national budget, lacks the money to allocate funds to the water and electricity sector," Maurice Angoubolo, a retired Brazzaville civil engineer, said.
For people in the countryside, the situation is dire. On average, rural areas have a maximum of four hours of electricity from 6 p.m. and, even then, only the main towns are served. This is because rural areas depend on generators, but often lack the necessary fuel. Therefore, areas away from the district town remain in almost total darkness.
"This places the country among the weakest in Africa in terms of access to electricity," Itoua said.
Rural dwellers depend on paraffin oil and candles for lighting, as well as wood and charcoal for heating and cooking. Such is the environmental impact that the country still loses at least 7,000 hectares of forest each year to logging for firewood, according to the Central Africa Forestry Commission, a regional body.
The executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Hama Harba Diallo, said such logging was one of the factors contributing to the potential desertification of the Congo River Basin.
In addition, 70 percent of the rural population depends on casual labour for farming. If this pool of farm workers left for the towns, agricultural produce would diminish.
The lack of rural electrification means residents resort to less efficient sun-dried methods of food preservation, especially for meat and fresh-water fish.
"If we did not we would lose our food and die of hunger," said Delga Onina, a hotel manager in Ewo, in the department of the Cuvette Ouest, about 700 km northwest of Brazzaville.
Effort to improve supplies
To improve supplies of electricity to the locality of Impfondo, the main town of the northern department of Likouala, the government in 2005 provided two power generators with a combined capacity of 1,000 kilowatt hours. This was in addition to the 425 kilowatt generator that already serves the town's 30,000 residents.
"We are always without electricity. Sometimes we even have to conduct surgery by torchlight," Dr Louis Gambara, the Likouala director of health, said.
The southwestern areas of the country used to receive electricity from the Moukoukoulou Dam but war from 1998 to 21002 destroyed the Mindouli electricity centre, paralysing business in the Pool Department.
"Even drinking water remains insufficient, despite aid from humanitarian NGOs," Martyrs Mpassi, a teacher in Mindouli, said.
In a 2005 report, "The Pool: A neglected crisis", the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs acknowledged that water supply and electricity facilities were almost non-existent in several localities and in the Pool. Even if water facilities were in place, power would still be needed to pump the water into storage tanks.
[Congo: Rural residents left high and dry for lack of clean water]
lmm/oss
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
Share this article
