Rebuilt dam brings power to rural areas

The Congolese government has recommissioned the biggest hydro-electrical dam of Moukoukoulou, in the southwest, which was damaged during the 1999 civil war.

“We have just rehabilitated all four turbines,” said President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who visited the structure. He has been travelling around the district of Bouenza this week, launching construction projects to improve living conditions in the area, which was badly scarred by the conflicts.

Constructed in 1974 by Chinese technicians, the Moukoukoulou dam produced 74 megawatts of power a day. Since its destruction during the war, its output has been reduced to 25MW.

The rehabilitation project cost the government US$12 million, according to the Société nationale d’énergie (SNE), which says the dam has been totally redeveloped while the transformation posts will be ready for use in October.

The Moukoukoulou dam is the most important hydroelectric power supply in the country, serving the southern and southwestern areas of the country: Bouenza, Niari, Lékoumou and Kouilou, including the economic capital of Pointe-Noire. According to official statistics, more than half the population, estimated at 3,1 million people, live in these areas.

However, the energy provided by dam still does not extend to Brazzaville as the transformation post of Mindouli, in the department of the Pool, en route, has not yet been repaired. The country is thus still dependent on imported electricity from the hydroelectric dam of Inga in the southwest Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ranked 144 out of 177 countries on the United Nations Development Programme human development index in 2005, Congo’s population has limited access to electricity: about 45 percent in urban areas and no more than 5 percent in rural areas.

Since 2005, the government, with financial help from China, has been building a hydro-electrical dam in Imboulou, more than 200 km north of Brazzaville, which is to produce 120MW per day from 2009 onwards.

The cost of this reached US$250 million, of which 85 percent is financed by China while the remaining 15 percent will be paid for by the Congolese government.

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