Thursday, February 24, 2011

Leading Russian, Chinese power companies form joint venture in Siberia

Leading Russian, Chinese power companies form joint venture in Siberia

Xinhua
(http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/xinhua/2011-02-25/content_1859388.html)
Updated: 2011-02-25

MOSCOW, February 24 (Xinhua) -- Russia's largest independent power
company "EuroSibEnergo" and the "China Yangtze International" ( Hong
Kong subsidiary company of the "China Yangtze Power") have signed an
agreement to form a joint power venture in Russia's Siberia, the
EuroSibEnergo announced on Thursday.

According to the agreement, the joint venture "YES Energo", of which the
EuroSibEnergo and the China Yangtze International each hold a 50 percent
stake, will develop hydro and thermal power projects in Siberia.

In the first stage of the venture, YES Energo will examine two
hydropower and one thermal project in Eastern Siberia with a total
installed capacity of over 3 GW, the EuroSibEnergo said in a statement,
adding that the joint venture is aiming at building up to 10 GW of new
capacity to feed the growing domestic demand for electricity which is
anticipated in the region and to create additional capacity for power
exports from Siberia to China.

"Mutually beneficial relationships such as the YES Energo will further
strengthen ever-expanding Sino-Russian strategic partnerships, and we
hope that our partnership will provide a good example for other
companies and industries seeking to boost Sino- Russian bilateral
cooperation," the Chairman of China Yangtze Power Cao Guangjing said in
the statement.

Chairman of EuroSibEnergo Andrey Likhachev praised the cooperation as a
"landmark", saying "YES Energo is a perfect example of how Russia and
China can partner strategically to shape the future of the energy industry."

According to the statement, the YES Energo, whose name comes from China
Yangtze Power and EuroSibEnergo, is registered in Hong Kong with a
statutory capital of 6 million U.S. dollars.

China Yangtze Power is the largest listed hydropower electricity
producer in China and one of the top hydropower producers in the world.
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DRC: Small Is Beautiful - And Electrifying

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54597

ENERGY-DR CONGO
Small Is Beautiful - And Electrifying
By Badylon K. Bakiman


KIKWIT, DR Congo, Feb 24, 2011 (IPS) - While discussion of hydroelectric
power on the Congo River is dominated by the massive Grand Inga project
and the dream of power for the entire continent, construction of a series
of smaller dams to benefit local communities may produce tangible results
much more quickly.

Grand Inga could generate as much as 39,000 megawatts of power. Earlier in
February, a two-year, 13.4 million dollar contract was awarded to Aecom
Technology Company and �l�ctricit� de France to carry out feasibility
studies for the hydroelectric generation complex and transmission lines to
carry power as far as Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.

Too big to succeed?

But the Grand Inga project has already encountered setbacks and attracted
criticism.

Westcor, a consortium of state-owned power companies from five Southern
African states, had a proposed 10 billion dollar, 4,000 megawatt project
for a site known as Inga 3 rejected by the Democratic Republic of Congo
government in February 2010. The DRC authorities instead agreed to a
smaller project with mining giant BHP Billiton on the same site that would
principally supply a new aluminium smelter being constructed the company
150 kilometres away.

This project has been criticised by environmental justice groups such as
International Rivers. Just six percent of Congolese have access to
electricity, says International Rivers, and the BHP Billiton project would
prioritise supplying energy-intensive industry rather than the needs of
the population.

The environmentalists are also sceptical of the promise of the larger
plans Aecom is now studying as well, arguing that the continent lacks a
distribution network to carry power from a single mega-project to the
majority of those who need it; they argue that the estimated 80 billion
dollar price tag would be better spent on decentralised generation,
including wind, solar and micro-hydro plants.

They also cite the risk of corruption and mismanagement, a warning given
teeth by the 2008 disappearance of $6.5 million intended to rehabilitate
one of the two aging power stations already in place at the Inga site.

A more modest solution

While the debate swirls around the larger projects, February finds work
under way on a dam at Kakobola, one of the first of up to 315 much smaller
dams planned for sites around the country.

The Kakobola dam will provide electricity for three built-up areas in the
southwestern DRC province of Bandundu. V. K. Sharma, head of the Indian
company Angelique International Limited, which will construct the dam,
says the dam will have a generating capacity of 9.3 megawatts.

"We are working on this project for the well-being of the population in
Gungu, Idiofa and Kikwit," says Sharma. His company will draw on the
experience of building similar projects in Afghanistan, Rwanda and Sudan.

"It's easier to build a dam on a river where there are falls such as this
one," Sharma told IPS in an interview at the dam site at Gungu, some 200
kilometres from Kikwit, the provincial capital.

The dam is being built at a waterfall on the Lufuku river which has a
height of 29 metres, according to Sharma. The Kakobola dam will have a
reservoir just four metres deep, and its turbines will not eliminate the
natural falls on the river.

"The dam will cost 53 million dollars," says Remy Matala, from the DRC's
energy ministry, which is collaborating on the project. "The Indian
government, through that country's Export-Import Bank, will put in 42
million. The Congolese contribution of 10 million dollars comes from the
2011 budget."

Serving local needs

Completion of the dam is eagerly awaited in the region. "I want the
electricity supply to come quickly. It's not normal for a city the size of
Kikwit (around a million inhabitants) to be without electricity,"
complains Mave Kupe, one of the many students in the city who must study
by the light of storm lantern.

The project is scheduled for completion in January 2014. The more than
three million residents of this area presently rely on paraffin lamps,
candles or custom-rigged systems that power light bulbs from torches with
a box containing a set of batteries.

The Kakobola dam will also contribute towards securing regular access to
drinking water, particularly in Kikwit, where 800,000 people lack access
to safe water.

When the contract for the dam was signed in Kinshasa in October 2010, the
Congolese energy minister, Gilbert Thilongo, noted that the Kakobola
project was first proposed in 1980. The installation is the first of an
extensive series of small dams planned for the country. It will be
followed by another dam in Katende, in Kasa� Occidental province,
according to the minister.

"I hope that the work on this dam won't stop mid-way," said Emery Rapha�l
Mikolo, a nurse in Idiofa. "We have seen it many times in our country -
the work starts briskly, but then a gloomy silence takes over."

Louis Kasende, an opposition member of parliament who is the vice
president of the Commission for Reconstruction and Development in
Bandundu's provincial assembly, wants the DRC government to state clearly
when the money from India's Import-Export Bank will be repaid.

Wire reports state the DRC will begin repaying the loan in 2016, and will
then pay 1.75 percent interest over a 20 year period.

Maxime Pakumu, the director of the Gungu administrative zone, said the
construction of the project will help to reduce employment in the region,
as well as improving the quality of life, purchasing power, and even
health outcomes thanks to electricity for health facilities in the area.

Though small-scale dams such as this one at Kakobola do not answer the
question of powering energy-intensive industry in DRC and beyond, if the
dam delivers the expected benefits for the region it sits in, it may
create alternatives to a development path that relies so heavily on
resource extraction.

(END)
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Drought cuts Tanzanian power

http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE71E0HR20110215

Tanzania power cuts worsen after drought

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania has extended nationwide power rationing after a prolonged drought led to a 230 megawatt (MW) deficit on the national grid, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Energy and Minerals Minister William Ngeleja told parliament the state-run power utility, Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO), was generating just two thirds of the nation's total energy demand.

"Only 470 megawatts of electricity is currently being produced, which is equivalent to 67 per of the total energy demand in the country," he said.

The minister said peak demand stands at 833 MW. Some lawmakers described the shortfall as a "national crisis" for east Africa's second largest economy.

TANESCO imposed power cuts in December after a shortage of natural gas supply to turbines led to a 40 megawatt deficit on the national grid.

Power rationing was expected to end in January, but drought at hydropower stations has now pushed up the power deficit to 230 MW.

Most of Tanzania's electricity is hydropower generated. Failed rains have cut output at the dams to 180 MW, with another 280 MW being produced by gas and diesel-fired turbines.

"We anticipate having an average shortfall of 264 MW of electricity from the national grid this year because of expected long spells of drought," he said, adding there would still be a deficit of 67 MW even if the next rains fell.

Ngeleja said the government was considering inviting independent power producers to set up emergency power-plants that could generate an additional 260 MW of power.

Tanzania plans to produce up to 1,000 MW from new coal-fired power plants over the next five years. Only 14 percent of Tanzania's 40 million people are hooked to the grid, while demand is growing by 10 to 15 percent annually.

More than a fifth of Tanzania's generated electricity is lost during transmission and distribution, but the government aims to reduce this to 15 percent, Ngeleja said.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Civil groups protest over power dam in Ethiopia/Groups to protest against China-funded Ethiopian dam

Civil groups protest over power dam in Ethiopia
Daily Nation
20 February 2011
(http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Civil+groups+protest+over+power+dam+in+Ethiopia+/-/1056/1111650/-/ddpes/-/)


By NATION CORRESPONDENT

Members of civil society have petitioned the Chinese government against
being involved in the building of a controversial mega-dam on the
Kenya-Ethiopia border.

The Gilgel Gibe hydropower dam is being built in Ethiopia and is aimed
at supplying power to Kenya and other neighbouring countries.

But the protesters, through the Friends of Lake Turkana lobby, termed
the project a risk to the environment.

"The dam is going to reduce the Omo river's flow into lake Turkana,
which is the main source of livelihood among the Turkana people," said
Ms Ikal Angelei of Friends of Lake Turkana after they marched to the
Chinese embassy to deliver a petition calling on China to stop its firms
from engaging in a project that is dangerous to the environment.

A number of Chinese firms, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China, are financing the project. Companies involved in the project
include Exim Bank of China, which finances construction of the
transmission line to Addis Ababa by the Chinese Company Tebian Electric
Apparatus Stock company.

It was awarded the contract in July 2009. The demonstration coincided
with the 3rd UN World Day of Social Justice, which was observed on Sunday.

The dam, to be built on the Omo River, 300km southwest of Addis Ababa,
is the largest project to ever be implemented in Ethiopia.

Once completed, it will stand at 240 metres high � to become the tallest
dam in Africa � and hold a 211 km2 reservoir behind it.

The work started in 2006 and power production is scheduled to start this
year. The dam will be completed in 2012.

---

Groups to protest against China-funded Ethiopian dam
Sudan Tribune
http://www.sudantribune.com/Groups-to-protest-against-China,38039

February 18, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) - International conservation groups,
members of civil society and other concerned individuals will on Sunday,
20 February 2011 stage a peaceful protest march to petition the Chinese
government against the involvement of several Chinese companies in the
construction of a controversial dam.

The activists say the hydroelectric dam "threatens" the survival of
hundreds of thousands of indigenous people throughout the Lower Omo
Valley in Ethiopia and around Lake Turkana in Kenya.

According to campaigners, if completed, the Gibe III Dam will devastate
the fragile ecosystems of the lower Omo Valley and Kenya's Lake Turkana,
on which 500,000 poor farmers, herders and fisher folk rely for their
livelihoods.

Campaigners also fear that the dam would reduce the flow of water into
Lake Turkana. The dam would flood a huge area, creating a 150km-long
lake. The groups have been urging western donors and banks not to fund
the Gibe III hydroelectric dam project.

But Ethiopia's government disagrees, saying that the dam is needed to
generate electricity and will not affect its flow. Power generated out
of it will be used for its population and to sell power abroad and the
advantages outweighs for the whole country, the local communities, and
even for our neighboring countries, including Kenya, Addis Ababa says.

Led by the civil society group, Friends of Lake Turkana, the protesters
will deliver a petition, signed by more than 2,000 organizations and
individuals, to the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in Nairobi,
seeking the intervention of the Chinese government to either bar or
advice the companies against involvement in this "environmentally,
socially and culturally harmful mega-project".

The petition also claims that the dam could trigger a resource-based
conflict between communities living around the Kenya-Sudan-Ethiopia border.

Construction began in 2006 and if completed on the dam would be Africa�s
second largest hydroelectric dam.

Up on completion in 2012, Ethiopia hopes to more than double the
country�s current capacity and export power export to Kenya, Sudan and
Djibouti.

Communities living within the Omo River-Lake Turkana basin are opposed
to the project saying that it will inflict permanent damage to their way
of life and peace in the region. Damming the Omo River, they say, will
permanently change the river's flood patterns which the Ethiopian
communities living in the lower Omo basin have depended on for
centuries. It will also reduce or completely cut out inflow of water
into Lake Turkana � which depends on the river for 90 percent of its water.

"These drastic changes will irreparably destroy the lives of some
700,000 already disadvantaged people in both Kenya and Ethiopia", said
Ikal Angelei, director of Friends of Lake Turkana.

Friends of Lake Turkana and concerned organizations will be delivering a
petition against the involvement of Chinese companies in the project
demanding that the banks withdraw their funding and the construction
companies cancel their contracts.

"Construction of Gibe III is the most outrageous social injustice of our
time," said Angelei.

"These companies have an obligation to uphold the rights of our people,
who have been marginalized and victimized for far too long by their
oppressive and neglectful regimes," she said.
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Friday, February 18, 2011

Commentary: Murky waters stain China's booming hydro industry

Murky waters stain China's booming hydro industry
Global Times
February 18, 2011
http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/commentary/2011-02/624315.html

By Wang Yongchen

In the past, hydroelectric power has been assumed to be a clean energy, since it consumes no fossil fuels and emits no pollutants. However, plenty of recent scientific research suggests that the environmental consequences of the construction of dams and operation of hydropower stations are considerable.

A typical example is the emission of methane, a kind of greenhouse gas, as a result of decaying forest beneath the risen water level. Other submerged pollutants include the industrial and domestic wastes.

At the Earth Summit 2002, a summit convened by the UN to discuss the prognosis of human sustainable development, only small dams, those lower than 15 meters were defined as "clean energy."

Almost half of the large dams in the world are in China. So there's an urgent need to conduct an assessment of the environmental consequences.

Other negative consequences of dams include risking the extinction of specific fish and plant species. But the destruction of the local biosphere does not look so urgent compared to the ramifications of geomorphic change.

China's hydropower capacity is mainly concentrated in the country's southwestern regions, where the geological conditions are fragile and unpredictable. Currently the geological assessments are only run individually and locally, which means no one is clear about what could happen when so many colossal dams are being built at the same time.

We and other NGOs have been trying to persuade the public and the government to incorporate environmental considerations into policymaking. It is unfair to merely label us as "a group of people enthusiastic about saving the Earth," or treat us as the antithesis of industrial development.

What we are doing is revealing those hidden long-term cost that some myopic people are unconcerned about. We prioritize the long-term national interests, sustainable growth, and local people's welfare, rather than short-term economic interests.

At present, the recognition of the environmental hazards brought by hydroelectricity is worryingly insufficient. Many local environmental policies still lack comprehensive analysis and a workable basis. Thus a lot of so-called solutions are merely decorative.

There are also legal impediments. Currently, under the law, it is the constructors that spend money and hire specialists to do environmental analysis. Often the constructors can unduly influence the verdicts.

As a result, the environmental hazards caused by hydroelectricity have led to academic concerns and research. Thanks to the expertise of environmental scientists, many environmental costs are now defined and made known to the public. And it is up to environmentalists to translate those findings into public conscience and pressure on policymaking.

Rivers and their associated hydropower are in fact a kind of public good. They belong to the nation, but have been privatized by power companies. Of course, the costs of privatization, such as monetary investment, are shouldered by the public funds. But power companies are still profiting from selling electricity.

We've done many investigations into local residents' lives after the construction of reservoirs. Some people falsely believe that local residents are better off after they're forcibly moved, but according to our investigations, generally villagers settled along rivers are relatively rich and are badly affected by the construction of dams.

Take the Lisu people along the Nujiang River in Liuku, Sichuan Province. They've been moved en masse to newly constructed villages, and have lost their agricultural livelihood since the new villages aren't built on arable land. They also cannot raise livestock since the new buildings have no yards. To prevent them from being miserably unemployed, local governments offer them shop buildings, but Liuku is isolated and the villagers can't all make a living from this.

Other farmers are poorly relocated to makeshift buildings, which are vulnerable to mudslides and other geological hazards. In July 2010, a destructive landslide struck a migrant village in Sichuan and killed 20 people. This isn't coincidental, as the relocation of local people uphill often leads to more geological risks.

If the process of policymaking remains opaque and is controlled by cronies, hydroelectricity construction will be a vicious and exploitative racket.

Global Times reporter Wang Di compiled this article, based on an interview with Wang Yongchen, founder of Green Earth Volunteers, a leading environmental NGO in China. wangdi@globaltimes.com.cn


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Stiegler's Gorge along the River Rufiji may be under threat

(NG: Good article on potential dam plans in Tanzania. Sadly, this author may be wrong about Uganda protecting Murchisons Falls. and the only reason Kalagala is still protected is that it was set aside as a concession for building Bujagali Dam--and yet gov't still tried to overturn that agreement to build a big dam, see http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/220/746267)

Stiegler's Gorge along the River Rufiji may be under threat



By Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN | Feb 13, 2011

(eTN) - While the controversy over the planned Serengeti highway continues unabated – especially in light of Tanzania government's decision to go ahead by hook or crook – another potential nail in Tanzania's conservation coffin is gradually emerging in the public domain.

Regular and reliable sources in Dar es Salaam and Arusha have confirmed that the present electricity shortage, which is almost crippling the country's manufacturing sector and impacting substantially on the financial bottom lines of all businesses including the hospitality sector, is largely caused by the lack of preventive maintenance of equipment, rendering turbines useless, while an oncoming drought is again expected to keep the water levels in hydro-electric dams below sufficient levels. Thermal generation, according to the same sources in a key standby power plant, did not commence until now as the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) failed to procure and deliver fuel to the power station, denying the country of over 50 megawatts of potential feed into the national grid.

Yet, as if the country had learned nothing from the year-long controversy over plans to kill the Serengeti migration by constructing a highway right across the migration paths of the great herds, plans dating back some 40 or more years are being taken out of old filing cabinets, dusted off and reconsidered to build another hydro-electric power plant at Stiegler's Gorge along the River Rufiji in the Selous Game Reserve to alleviate the chronic power shortages, rather than repairing, refurbishing, and upgrading existing facilities – or for that matter get the fuel to the standby station in time.

Around the same time when the Rufiji plans were originally drawn up, similar plans emerged in Uganda to build a power station at the Murchisons Falls of the River Nile. This project, however, was shelved for a number of reasons – conservation actually among them even back then – and Uganda is better off for it today in spite of the current shortfall of electricity production, which the Bujagali plant will remedy when the first turbine comes online later this year. The tourism potential of the Murchisons Falls National Park turned out to be a regular and growing source of revenue for the country – visitors are coming from across the world to Uganda to see such attractions, in particular the only major waterfalls of this branch of the Nile in the wilderness setting of the park. This is the Victoria Nile turning into the Albert Nile turning into the White Nile – the "other" Blue Nile from Ethiopia, however, too has major waterfalls but are far less explored or visited. Both branches of the Nile then meet in Khartoum.

The Ugandan government went as far as committing that the Kalagala Falls, below the upcoming Bujagali power station, will not be tapped for electricity as an offset – aimed to protect biodiversity and the scenic value for tourism of these falls – agreed with the World Bank as part of the package of the co-financing of the Bujagali project. This was reaffirmed only earlier this week, but will likely be brushed off by Tanzania as irrelevant, as they brushed aside every logical and common sense argument so far about their highway project.

Therefore, for Tanzania, presently the bad news simply does not seem to stop. Considering the defeat the country suffered at the hands of the CITES meeting in Doha a year ago, which turned down Tanzania's request to sell off both "regular" and confiscated blood ivory, the customs department then late last year tried to auction off confiscated ivory in circumvention of the CITES ban, claiming it was processed or semi-processed and, therefore, excluded from the global trade restriction CITES has placed on ivory. These two events brought the spotlight on Tanzania from the global conservation fraternity, and when a newly-imported Eastern Black Rhino was found slaughtered in the Serengeti, allegedly due to the absence of a 24/7 protection detail by rangers and wardens, allegedly over the lack of funding from government, even die-hard supporters of the Serengeti, like the Frankfurt Zoological Society, started getting cold feet, more so as the highway plans were already threatening to lay to waste dozens of years of conservation efforts and financial support.

UNESCO has given clear indication that the building of a highway would result in the coveted UNESCO World Heritage Site status being withdrawn, a threat incidentally also on the cards over an equally controversial hotel project in the "Stone Town" of Zanzibar, which also presently has UNESCO recognition and has also come under the spotlight in recent weeks, when news of the deal became public knowledge. Those threats also do not seem to have sunk into the minds of the powers that be, as tourism stakeholders are increasingly getting anxious and desperate over such unwelcome prospects.

The emerging talk of a potential power plant along the Rufiji River, especially at the scenic Stiegler's Gorge, will, therefore, undoubtedly cause yet more alarm among the conservation fraternity and the Tanzanian tourism sector, since the Selous – the world's largest game reserve – is potentially a huge asset for the industry and has hardly been opened up so far, in other words still offering plenty of investment opportunities for more tourist facilities in hitherto unexplored parts of the reserve. The Selous has in recent years, partly because of its remoteness, been hit by poaching but still remains incredibly rich of wildlife and birdlife. Only last year did Serena Hotels add two top-of-the-line tented camps, while the owners of The Arusha Hotel also opened a luxury camp in the Selous in early 2010, all incidentally reached through Stiegler's Airstrip.

While presently no one can say with certainty what impact a hydro-electric dam and power plant would have on the river and the gorge, or on the Selous as a whole, opposition to such plans will swiftly grow, should indeed government want to go ahead with the revival of such plans. Environmental Impact Assessments are known to have been hijacked in Tanzania by using groups of consultants suspected to produce a pre-determined conclusion as part of their generous fees, casting doubt about the results of any such studies where government is the main paymaster.

The final outcome though, considering the current breed of leaders in Tanzania, which already have and continue to trample the conservation legacy of founding father Mwalimu Julius Nyerere into the dust, may simply be that irrespective of logic, reasoned argument, and facts to the contrary, they may still go ahead anyway and build a power plant right there and as is the case with the Serengeti Highway, putting profit, and allegedly individual greed, before the environment.

In the latter case, although at the same time asking development partners and the World Bank for funding for a variety of projects and to cover for general budget shortfalls, Tanzania has declined a World Bank offer to finance the alternative "Southern route" running behind the main migration routes of the wildebeest and zebras and slammed the door in the face of the World Bank Country Representative. He was told by none other than the president himself that "the Southern route is no alternative to serve the people of the region." Intriguing words considering that the main interests being served by the new highway are those of mining companies who allegedly contributed most generously to the ruling party's last election campaign – quid pro quo in other words - especially when finance may in fact be offered as part of bilateral assistance from China, which reportedly has major interests in exploiting Tanzania's mineral wealth. This rumor has never been fully denied nor related questions ever been satisfactorily answered to the few in the Tanzanian media brave enough to still ask such questions.

Will conservation have to yield in Tanzania for every upcoming industrial, power or mining project in the future and become a lost cause? Again, we wait to see, as time will tell.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Kenyans to protest Chinese involvement in Ethiopia's Gibe III Dam

Kenyans to protest Chinese involvement in Ethiopia's Gibe III Dam
African Press Agency, 2011-02-17
www.apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=140869

APA-Nairobi (Kenya) Members of civil society and other concerned
individuals in Kenya are on Sunday, 20 February 2011 scheduled to stage
a peaceful protest march to petition the Chinese government against the
involvement of several Chinese companies in the ongoing construction of
the controversial and potentially devastating Ethiopian Gilgel Gibe III
mega-dam, says a press release issued in Nairobi on Thursday.

Led by the civil society group, Friends of Lake Turkana, the protesters
will deliver a petition, signed by more than 2,000 organizations and
individuals, to the embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in Nairobi,
seeking the intervention of the Chinese government to either bar or
advice the companies against involvement in this environmentally,
socially and culturally harmful mega-project that could escalate
resource-based conflict between communities living around the
Kenya-Sudan-Ethiopia border. The march will coincide with the 3rd UN
World Day of Social Justice.

The mammoth $1.7 billion Gibe 3 Dam project to be constructed on the Omo
River, some 300 kilometres south-west of the Ethiopian capital Addis
Ababa, is the largest project to ever be implemented in Ethiopia. Once
completed, it will stand at 240 metres high - to become the tallest dam
in Africa - and hold a 211 km2 reservoir behind it. Construction begun
in 2006 and the first power production was scheduled for 2011, while the
dam would be completed in 2012. Ethiopia hopes to produce 1,870
megawatt, more than double the country's current installed capacity and
make $400 million from power export to Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti.

Communities living within the Omo River-Lake Turkana basin are opposed
to this project that will inflict permanent damage to their way of life
and peace in the region. Damming the Omo River will permanently change
the river's flood patterns which the Ethiopian communities living in the
lower Omo basin have depended on for centuries. It will also reduce or
completely cut out inflow of water into Lake Turkana - which depends on
the river for 90% of its water - especially during the period of filling
up the reservoir. "These drastic changes will irreparably destroy the
lives of some 700,000 already disadvantaged people in both Kenya and
Ethiopia", said Ikal Angelei, Director of Friends of Lake Turkana.

Due to the project's unpopularity and its potential social and
environmental injustices, various prospective donors - including the
World Bank and the European Investment Bank (US$341 million loan) –-have
withdrawn their support. The African Development Bank was also
considering funding the project. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of
China (ICBC) has stepped in and offered to finance a $500 million
contract awarded in May 2010 to Dongfang Electric Machinery Corporation
for the dam's turbines and electro-mechanical works. Other Chinese
companies involved in the project include Exim Bank of China which
finances construction of the transmission line to Addis Ababa by the
Chinese Company Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co. Ltd, which was
awarded the contract in July 2009.

Friends of Lake Turkana and concerned organizations will be delivering a
petition against these Chinese companies' involvement in the project
demanding that the banks withdraw their funding and the construction
companies exit from the contracts. "Construction of Gibe III is the most
outrageous social injustice of our time," said Angelei. "These companies
have an obligation to uphold the rights of our people, who have been
marginalized and victimized for far too long by their oppressive and
neglectful regimes," she concludes.

Friends of Lake Turkana was formed after a few Kenyans became privy to
information that the Gibe III Dam in Ethiopia will lead to unacceptable
tradeoffs that jeopardize indigenous economies and destroy the eco-system.
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Kenyans to protest Chinese involvement in Ethiopia's Gibe III Dam

Kenyans to protest Chinese involvement in Ethiopia's Gibe III Dam
African Press Agency, 2011-02-17
www.apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=140869

*APA-Nairobi (Kenya)* Members of civil society and other concerned
individuals in Kenya are on Sunday, 20 February 2011 scheduled to stage
a peaceful protest march to petition the Chinese government against the
involvement of several Chinese companies in the ongoing construction of
the controversial and potentially devastating Ethiopian Gilgel Gibe III
mega-dam, says a press release issued in Nairobi on Thursday.

Led by the civil society group, Friends of Lake Turkana, the protesters
will deliver a petition, signed by more than 2,000 organizations and
individuals, to the embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in Nairobi,
seeking the intervention of the Chinese government to either bar or
advice the companies against involvement in this environmentally,
socially and culturally harmful mega-project that could escalate
resource-based conflict between communities living around the
Kenya-Sudan-Ethiopia border. The march will coincide with the 3rd UN
World Day of Social Justice.

The mammoth $1.7 billion Gibe 3 Dam project to be constructed on the Omo
River, some 300 kilometres south-west of the Ethiopian capital Addis
Ababa, is the largest project to ever be implemented in Ethiopia. Once
completed, it will stand at 240 metres high - to become the tallest dam
in Africa - and hold a 211 km2 reservoir behind it. Construction begun
in 2006 and the first power production was scheduled for 2011, while the
dam would be completed in 2012. Ethiopia hopes to produce 1,870
megawatt, more than double the country's current installed capacity and
make $400 million from power export to Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti.

Communities living within the Omo River-Lake Turkana basin are opposed
to this project that will inflict permanent damage to their way of life
and peace in the region. Damming the Omo River will permanently change
the river's flood patterns which the Ethiopian communities living in the
lower Omo basin have depended on for centuries. It will also reduce or
completely cut out inflow of water into Lake Turkana - which depends on
the river for 90% of its water - especially during the period of filling
up the reservoir. "These drastic changes will irreparably destroy the
lives of some 700,000 already disadvantaged people in both Kenya and
Ethiopia", said Ikal Angelei, Director of Friends of Lake Turkana.

Due to the project's unpopularity and its potential social and
environmental injustices, various prospective donors - including the
World Bank and the European Investment Bank (US$341 million loan) –-have
withdrawn their support. The African Development Bank was also
considering funding the project. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of
China (ICBC) has stepped in and offered to finance a $500 million
contract awarded in May 2010 to Dongfang Electric Machinery Corporation
for the dam's turbines and electro-mechanical works. Other Chinese
companies involved in the project include Exim Bank of China which
finances construction of the transmission line to Addis Ababa by the
Chinese Company Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co. Ltd, which was
awarded the contract in July 2009.

Friends of Lake Turkana and concerned organizations will be delivering a
petition against these Chinese companies' involvement in the project
demanding that the banks withdraw their funding and the construction
companies exit from the contracts. "Construction of Gibe III is the most
outrageous social injustice of our time," said Angelei. "These companies
have an obligation to uphold the rights of our people, who have been
marginalized and victimized for far too long by their oppressive and
neglectful regimes," she concludes.

Friends of Lake Turkana was formed after a few Kenyans became privy to
information that the Gibe III Dam in Ethiopia will lead to unacceptable
tradeoffs that jeopardize indigenous economies and destroy the eco-system.
________________________________________________

This is International Rivers' mailing list on China's global footprint, and particularly Chinese investment in
international dam projects.

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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Ecologists dread new dam boom

Ecologists dread new dam boom
Global Times
By Xu Donghuan
February 10, 2011

http://special.globaltimes.cn/2011-02/621272.html

On the night of August 18 last year after days of torrential rain had soaked the steep mountain slopes, a mudslide struck a remote village in the northwest tip of Yunnan Province, killing 92 villagers.

"I was woken up in the middle of the night by a loud bang of rolling rocks and I ran outside with my family," 27-year-old villager Yu Lichun told the Xinhua News Agency the next morning.

"When we reached the road, the mud was already up to our knees. It was lucky all my family made it to safety."

Others were less fortunate: Another villager Zhou Shunfang told the Yunnan Information News she lost eight family members to the slide.

Although officially cleared of any wrongdoing, an iron mine that sits too close to the riverbed two kilometers upstream on a tributary of the Nujiang River was blamed for blocking the river flow and causing havoc. Large mining machinery including 40 trucks from the plant was swept away into the river.

"When morning light broke, we could only see the tip of the mine in the floodwater," He Shilong, a villager who lived across the river, told Xinhua.
The mud flow - up to five meters thick - carried 600,000 cubic meters of debris and inundated homes and roads in an area of nearly seven square kilometers. Upstream from the debris, river levels were six meters higher than normal.

The site of a 300-meter-high dam in the early stages of planning 30 kilometers downstream at the Maji hydroelectric plant on the Nujiang River, remained largely intact.

Days after the deadly mudslide, the government of the Nujiang Prefecture found 750 mudslide-prone sites of about 20 square kilometers each in its 14,700-square-kilometer territory.

Less than six months after the tragic night, a two-story high rock that had been swept down from the mountains during the mudslide, was placed at the center of a memorial site for the lives buried under the debris.

"You have to stand in awe of the power of nature," said Guo Yuhua, a sociologist from Tsinghua University who visited the site in early December. "We humans must be out of our mind, wishing to harness nature."

Earthquake fears

This seems exactly what the country's dam builders are still trying to do. In 2003, a proposal to build 13 dams on the Nujiang River was submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission, just one month after UNESCO listed the river as a World Heritage site. Premier Wen Jiabao called off the project in April 2004 saying it should be "seriously reviewed and decided scientifically.''

China's southwest, loosely known as the greater Shangri-la region, is famous for its water. For years hydropower companies in China have been eyeing the potential of rivers here, generated by steep drops in elevation along their course.

Attempts to penetrate the region have been foiled over the last five years by the country's en-vironmentalists effectively lobbying the government to tighten its approval policy.

Between 2008 and 2009, not a single major hydropower project was given the green light by Beijing, resulting in less than one third of proposed projects in the nation's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006 - 10) beginning construction.

With large hydroelectric projects on ice, smaller projects that do not need State Council approval have multiplied on the tributaries in the Southwest.
"They are as dense as the stars on the sky," said Wang Jian, a river specialist from Beijing who visited sections of the major rivers in December.
Sixty tributaries around the Nujiang Prefecture have been dammed, local officials told the Economic Observer in April. Forty-two hydropower projects have been completed. Another 88 are in the pipeline.

"These sub-standard small hydroelectric stations can trigger landslides and are a great threat to the local ecological system," Wang said.
His worries are shared by Yu Xiaogang, a renowned river management specialist and founder of the non-governmental group Green Watershed in Yunnan.
Yu is known for his successful campaign over the years to protect the trunk of the Nujiang River from being dammed. In his view, building dams on the Nujiang River can trigger not only mudslides, but earthquakes.

"The Nujiang River valley sits right on a fault line," he said. "Building dams disturbs the mountains and is very risky."
A potentially deadly link between the earthquake in Wenchuan in 2008 and the Zipingba Dam just 17 kilometers from the epicenter has been pointed out by Fan Xiao, the chief engineer of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau in Chengdu.

Fan fears history repeating itself as the four Nujiang River dams downstream from the prefecture seat of Liuku are within a high-frequency earthquake zone.
As the 12th Five-Year-Plan for 2011-2015 approaches, environmentalists fear the government may lift the ban on large dams.
The approval on July 8 of the long-stalled construction of Jin'anqiao hydropower station on the Jinsha River, upstream of the Yangtze River, and the Zangmu hydropower station on the Yarlung Zangbo River in the Tibet Autonomous Region, has been widely interpreted as a clear signal.

Full steam ahead

The target is to construct hydropower stations with an installed capacity of 83 million kilowatts, according to the Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design for the Ministry of Water Resources.

"There is little chance that we will not meet our target this time," said Zhang Boting, vice-general secretary of China Hydropower Engineering Society and a
leading advocate for China's dam builders.

"Over the years, it has become clear that the accusations from the environmentalists are not based on facts.

"Building hydropower stations actually helps protect the rivers and the environment."

China's pledge to generate 15 percent of its power from non-fossil fuel sources by 2020 will inevitably play a significant role in the government's thinking about hydropower projects.

"China's stance on large hydropower projects goes with the pressure from the International community for us to keep to our promise on carbon emission reduction," Zhang said.

Lifting the ban on hydropower projects for the sake of reducing carbon emissions is too big a sacrifice to make, environmentalists argue.

"If the government approves the target, it means we will build one Three Gorges Dam every year for the next five years," Yu said.

Dai Qing, a veteran journalist and author from Beijing, believes that what's going on in China shows that China is always one step behind the world.

"In many Western countries, dam builders are out of favor," she said. "But here in China, we are still busy building dams."

When the country's legislators meet on March 5 for the annual National's People's Congress, environmentalists know it will probably be their last chance to raise concerns about the dam boom in southwestern China.

"We are very concerned about the rush to build so many hydropower stations across almost every river in the Southwest," said Wang Yongchen, founder of Green Earth, a leading non-governmental group specializing in the protection of China's rivers. "This is overexploitation and chaotic exploitation."
An emergency report is being drafted and a separate letter to Premier Wen Jiaobao is also nearing completion.

"We need to bring the decision-making process into the sunlight," Yu said. "The public has the right to know the risks of some projects of our 12th Five-Year Plan."

Fast facts: A history of China dam catastrophes

On August 9, 1960, the newly-built Qiaodun Reservoir in Zhejiang Province collapsed during a typhoon. Built and sealed in a rush in March that year, the dam had stood at 39 meters tall, three meters above the water level when a typhoon hit in early June. Locals were hastily mobilized to elevate the height of the dam. Then when a second typhoon hit on August 9, the dam collapsed, killing at least 500 people. Some records say the death toll was 4,000. After the flood, the 100-year-old town of Qiaodun was afloat with corpses.

On August 8, 1963, after a week of heavy downpours in the upper reaches of the southern branch of the Haihe River, Liujiatai Dam, built in 1958 at the height of the Great Leap Forward near Baoding in Hebei Province, collapsed in a "one-in-20-year" flood. In 30 minutes, 40 million cubic meters of water at a rate of 28,000 cubic meters a second, rushed out of the reservoir. Some 948 people were killed, 67,000 houses damaged and more than 1,400 hectares of farmland destroyed.

On July 31, 1971, the nine-month-old Hutai Reservoir in Fushun, Liaoning Province, collapsed during a "one-in-60-year" flood, killing 512 people. At a height of 21 meters and storage capacity of 4.6 million cubic meters, the reservoir had allegedly been designed to withstand a "one-in-500-year" flood.

On August 8, 1975, Banqiao Dam, built on the Ruhe River in 1952 at Zhumadian, Henan Province as part of a flood-prevention and electricity-production program aimed at controlling the Yellow River, collapsed. At a height of 118 meters and with a storage capacity of 492 million cubic meters, it was designed to withstand a "one-in-1,000-year" flood. The Shimantan Dam on the Honghe River, the second-largest in the flood-prevention system, and two other smaller reservoirs also failed that day: 26,000 people died in the floods, according to the official death toll. After the flood receded, 145,000 people died from epidemics and from famine. Some estimates put the total death toll at more than 220,000. The number of people affected by the disaster exceeded 12 million. A Discovery Channel show on May 28, 2005, rated the Banqiao Dam collapse No.1 on a list of the "Top 10 Technological Catastrophes of the World," beating the Bhopal toxic gas leak in India on December 3, 1984, and the Chernobyl nuclear accident on April 26, 1986.

On August 29, 1993, the less than two-year-old Gouhou Reservoir in Qinghai Province collapsed, killing 328 and leaving 40 missing.

Fast facts: China & dams

China has more than 25,800 large dams, more than any other country in the world

These projects have relocated more than 10 million people from their homes and land

Chinese banks and companies in recent years have been involved in constructing some 269 dams in 67 different countries, particularly in Africa and Southeast
Asia. They include Kamchay Dam in Cambodia, Mphanda Nkuwa Dam in Mozambique, Merowe Dam in Sudan and Tasang Dam in Myanmar
Dammed, diverted and polluted, China's rivers are reaching an ecological tipping point

Source: US-based International Rivers

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How Rivers Are Sold to Private Corporations in India

The Water Wars
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 4, Dated January 29, 2011
www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne290111Thewater.asp

You can lease a river in Chhattisgarh for 22 years. At just Rs. 1 per
annum. While thousands go thirsty

Rivers belong to nations. But, in Chhattisgarh they belong to
corporations. BABA UMAR tracks the sale of six rivers in the state.

IN MAHMARA village of Durg district in Chhattisgarh, Ramoram Thakur, 70,
recalls how as a boy he would sing and hear folklore about water,
fishermen and farmers of his village, tucked into the western edge of
Sheonath river. However, such legends have a tragic ending nowadays.

Seated near a babul tree in the community choupal, the old man shares
stories with children about how the river passed onto the hands of a
private company, which denied villagers water for drinking, washing and
irrigation, stopped fishermen from casting their nets and prevented
locals from taking sand from the riverbed.

"Their barrage drowned a cremation ground on the banks. Dozens of
village located downstream were left with little water. What belonged to
us for centuries is no longer available for our use," he laments.

Thakur is talking about the Sheonath, the first river to be handed over
to a private group, Radius Water Limited (RWL), in 1998 by the
government of undivided Madhya Pradesh through its undertaking, MP
Aydhyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam Ltd (MPAKVN), now Chhattisgarh State
Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC). Despite major losses to the
government, the state didn't scrap the deal nor could it help the
thirsty villagers.

Since then, Chhattisgarh has seen hundreds of companies investing in the
state and many vying for the river waters. In a recent deal, the Water
Resource Department (WRD) gave its nod to 141 private and government
projects for which it will be supplying nearly 2,600 million cubic
metres (mcm) of water from rivers every year. Interestingly the state
supplies only 2,000 mcm of water for irrigation every year.

Carved out of Madhya Pradesh on 1 November 2000, Chhattisgarh wasn't a
water-scarce state. According to unofficial estimates, the state has
32,000 ponds. With major river basins — Mahanadi, Godavari, Narmada and
Brahmani Kachar — and several major rivers — Kurkut, Mahanadi, Kharun,
Sheonath, Indravati, Jonk, Kelo, Sabri, Hasdev, Peri, and Maand — water
shortage was never an issue.

But the priorities have changed. Earlier, dams were built to store water
for irrigation. Now, they are being constructed for supplying water to
industry. In fact, the Chhattisgarh government openly declares that it
is committed to giving water to industries throughout the year but not
to farmers for rabi crop.

THE SALE of Chhattisgarh's rivers began in 1998 when the then MP
government handed a 23.6 km stretch of Sheonath river in Durg to RWL,
pleading shortage of funds for supplying water to industries. In a
shocking story of "corruption and favouritism", as an Assembly nominated
committee discovered later, the Rs. 9 crore project was signed on 5
October 1998 between MPAKVN and RWL on a build, own, operate and
transfer (BOOT) basis. The plan was to build a barrage on the Sheonath
to supply up to 30 million litres per day (mld) to the Borai Industrial
Centre. Construction was completed in two years and operations began in
January 2001.

"We got to know about the sale of the river only when RWL began
harassing us," alleges Khemlal Sahu, a farmer in Mahmara. "Almost 25
percent of the villagers are fishermen. They were stopped from fishing.
Soon, fencing around the 23.6 km stretch began. Iron gates were erected
on both sides of the barrage to prevent locals from approaching the river."

The deal inherited by the CSIDC gave RWL exclusive access to the river
water for 22 years. It also held control rights over the supply of water
to the Borai Industrial Centre and the CSIDC was obliged to provide land
free of cost. CSIDC also handed over its entire infrastructure in Borai,
and assets worth Rs. 5 crore to Kailash Soni, owner of Kailash
Engineering, for a lease of a token Rs. 1 per year for establishing a
water supply project on BOOT basis. The CSIDC was to purchase water from
RWL and later sell it to the industrial units in Borai.

Though there was a lack of sufficient demand for water, then MPAKVN
managing director GS Mishra signed the agreement with RWL. Back then,
Borai had two large and medium-scale industries, and their combined
water requirement was between 1.14 and 2.5 mld, while the CSIDC had to
compulsorily shell out money for 4 mld. Adding to the losses, CSIDC
purchased water at Rs. 15 a cubic metre (1,000 litres) from RWL.
However, it sold water to industries at only Rs. 12 a cubic metre. The
agreement meant that CSIDC would incur a loss of 20 percent on every
unit of water it sold. Increase in both supply or demand would mean
higher losses. Adding to the toll was Hindustan Electro Graphite (HEG)
that was to buy almost 90 percent of the CSIDC's water sales but reneged
on its agreement.

While CSIDC continued to incur losses, public outrage fuelled by
continuous harassment of people by RWL saw several NGOs participating in
the agitation. Those who joined the protest included villagers from
Mohlai, Boludi, Malood, Kotni, Piperchadi, Kekro Koli, Bedwa Pathra,
Vagrum Nala and Basik Hai — all affected by the drying up of the
Sheonath downstream.

The Nadi Ghati Morcha (NGM) started a movement from Durg that reached
Raipur and then Delhi. Roadblocks and rallies were held. The ferocity of
the protests finally forced the then chief minister Ajit Jogi to
announce the "abrogation of the RWL contract" on 2 April 2003. However,
he didn't keep his promise.

NGM coordinator Gautam Bandhopadhyay says, "People had plenty of fresh
water for cooking and working. But they don't have rights over the
common property. RWL may have invested money but the villagers who are
living in the area for centuries have invested resources and have equal
rights on the water."

In 2003, the state Assembly constituted a Public Accounts Committee
(PAC) to probe the privatisation of Sheonath. The committee presented
its report on 16 March 2007 lambasting both CSIDC and RWL for signing a
deal that caused loss to the state exchequer and harm to villagers.

THE GOVERNMENT vowed to cancel the contract "within a legal framework"
and pay compensation to RWL for the lease period after the legal
department and the Advocate General give their opinions. The legal
department reportedly said, "If the government ends the contract, it has
to pay a compensation of Rs. 400 crore." Since then, nothing has
changed. RWL continues to manage the barrage and the reservoir while the
spate of public protests too has declined and so has their impact.

Ramchandra Singhdeo, who was the irrigation minister when the deal was
struck, says, "Without the knowledge of the irrigation secretary,
engineer-in-chief and myself, the CSIDC managing director signed a deal
that proved detrimental to both villagers and government. We sought
action reports from the government over the PAC's recommendations but
the usual reply was: the legal department is looking into the matter. I
don't know why the government is reluctant to scrap this deal."

Current CSIDC MD Devendra Singh says the contract can continue as it has
started to reap benefits. "Earlier, CSIDC was making losses. But now we
are selling 8-9 mld of water to half-a-dozen big and small companies at
beneficial rates," he says. Singh is quick to add that scrapping the
agreement would mean CSIDC paying Rs. 36 crore to RWL as compensation.

Water Resource Minister Hemchand Yadav concedes the deal between CSIDC
and RWL was "flawed and skewed" in favour of the latter. The government
is willing to scrap the contract and pay Rs. 10 crore to RWL as
compensation. "This deal affected several villages and the government. I
guess the controversy will die in a year," he says.

But will RWL accept Rs. 10 crore? "If the contract is stopped before its
term, the termination clauses have to be fulfilled. But nothing like
that is going to happen," says a defiant Pramod Agrawal, RWL project
director. Lashing out at the PAC, he says it has no jurisdiction over
the issue, which is in the domain of the public undertaking committee.
"But the public undertaking committee was never formed by the state
Assembly. Even PAC members never talked to us. It's a farce. We reject
it," he says.

Agrawal says three other projects — New Capital Water Supply, Siltra
Industrial Estate Water Supply and Urla Industrial Estate Water Supply —
were also privatised "and if our project is terminated, these projects
too should be abrogated. Why isn't anyone talking about these projects?
We are convinced the government or the CSIDC don't have the money to
compensate us and abrogate the agreement".
Precious commodity Jindal Steel draws 35,400 cubic metres of water from
Kelo every day

Agrawal denied that villagers are being stopped from using the river
water. "It was on the orders of the CSIDC and sub-district magistrate
that revenue department officials uprooted the villagers' water pumps.
We didn't allow fishermen to catch fish because we were following police
orders. The police wanted them to stay away from our power sub-station
fearing violence."

MEANWHILE, TROUBLE was brewing in Bonda Tikra village, Raigarh district.
Shanti Bai and her husband Shauki Lal, both daily wagers, were living
happily in Bonda Tikra, located on the banks of Kelo, a tributary of
Mahanadi, until a check dam and intake well were constructed by Jindal
Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL). "I didn't know how precious water was until
it was snatched from us," says Bai.
'Dozens of villages located downstream are now parched. What belonged to
us for centuries is no longer available for us' RAMORAM THAKUR,
Villager, Mahmara

In 1996, JSPL tried to draw water from Kelo for its sponge iron factory
and power plant. However, the government refused permission saying it
would cause water shortage. JSPL mounted pressure and it soon erected a
stop dam and began drawing 35,400 cubic metres of water every day.

The structures hampered irrigation in 14 villages downstream. "In
summers, we usually dig the riverbed with our hands and draw water in
plastic jugs. Now, the water pump sucks all the water while we struggle
to get a drop," says Bai.

To protest against JSPL's dam and intake well, locals sat on a seven-day
hunger strike in 1998. When the rest of the country was celebrating
Republic Day, Satyabhama, an Adivasi woman, became the struggle's first
'martyr'. "Her death won't go waste. Our resistance will continue," vows
Bai. "But our struggle's success depends on whose side the government
decides to take."

Almost 13 years have passed since the fight to restore the river flow
began. The intake well and the check dam still stand on the river Kelo
protected by JSPL guards.

The success of Sheonath and Kelo spurred a series of private projects
that saw villagers pitted against government and private firms. Private
barrages and dams over many rivers have come up since then. Kurkut in
Raigarh, Sabri in Dantewada, Kharun in Raipur, Hasdeo in Korba and
Champa, and Maand in Janjgir-Champa have been handed over to private
players.

Almost 60 km from Raigarh, Ghanau Ram Gariya, 62, along with dozens of
tribals in Burbhona village, is waiting in line to collect subsidised
rice not from a rice depot but from an official sitting inside a
community dispensary. "This should tell you the state of affairs in our
village," says Gariya, a farmer-turned-casual labourer.

Till 2007, Gariya and other tribals grew melon and cucumber on Kurkut's
banks. Rabi farming was also done in April, May and June. However, a
huge barrage and a dam that was built 35 km upstream at Rabo village
soon choked the river flow. The water was being fed to 1,000 MW JSPL
power plants at Tamnar. Soon, farmers living in 12 villages, including
Jampali, Kikricholi, Dehjari, lost their water source.

"Since then, we have to migrate to other villages in the summer. Do you
know how it feels when you don't bathe or wash your face for weeks at a
stretch?" asks Gariya. Last summer, a group of villagers headed for Rabo
dam seeking immediate discharge of water from Kurkut. JSPL employees
allegedly thrashed them with bamboo sticks. The distraught tribals and
villagers wrote a letter to their MLA, Anand Kumar Patel, seeking
immediate discharge of water. The MLA managed to get water released only
once in 90 days of the harsh summer.

"That was the time when we cursed ourselves for not joining the
agitation led by Rabo villagers. It taught us a lesson," says Vedran
Dhandsena, one of the village heads. He is referring to the agitation in
which villagers of Rabo, where a dam and a barrage was built, had
protested the construction of mega structures in the village and the
agreement that allowed JSPL to draw 54 mcm of water every year from
Kurkut and release only 7 mcm per year.

In 2004, when JSPL started acquisition of additional land in Rabo for
its power project, residents of 15 villages started an agitation with
tough resistance coming from Rabo village where the dam was to be built.
The dam would submerge almost 350 hectares of forest land and affect
thousands of hectares of irrigated land.

Rabo villagers spearheaded the protest and blocked roads leading to the
project site with tree trunks and rocks. They also patrolled the
entrance to the village for several nights. And soon public outrage
pushed the government to order a halt on the work at site on 4 November
2004.

"But with government officials' patronage, Jindal resumed work within a
week," recalls Champi Bai, who became famous for grabbing a revenue
official by his collar during the protest. She says the government
didn't hold any public hearing when JSPL got clearance in 1997 for the
first phase of the power project in Tamnar. "From the beginning, the
government has worked to benefit the company," she says.

The government not only gave up on the ownership of the dam but also
charged JSPL a paltry 90 paise for every 1,000 litres when other firms
pay around Rs. 3 for the same.

"This is just another example of how the government ruined its
resources, favoured a private company and harmed tribals of a dozen
villages," says Ramesh Agarwal, 55, an activist and founder of Jan
Chetana, which monitors mining, water and industrial projects in Raigarh.

The agreement dated 14 January 2008 signed with the JSPL, a copy of
which is in TEHELKA'S possession, reads, "The company shall pay to the
government rates for water drawn by it from the said natural or
government water source at the rates fixed by the WRD order No.
1819/7-A/WR/TS/IWS/02/D-4 Raipur dated 21.03.2006, which is 90 paise
only per cubic metre."

THE JSPL management says it owns the dam without which "we couldn't get
70 percent of the money from banks as loan". "Banks give a loan only
when the structure is yours," says Pradeep Tandon, senior
vice-president, corporate affairs, JSPL. Last May, the government
revised the rates and JSPL would be paying Rs. 2.80 per cubic metre, he
says. Asked about the tussle between JSPL and villagers, he says the
people's anger should be directed against the government and not at the
JSPL, because "we only work under government rules".

There are other instances when companies have guzzled water without any
proper agreement with the government. According to the Comptroller and
Auditor General (CAG) report for the year ended 31 March 2009, National
Thermal Power Corporation has been drawing water from a canal in the
state for the past 11 years without any agreement. "The penalty charges
for the unauthorised withdrawal amounts to Rs. 316.26 crore for the
period between June 1998 to March 2009," the report says.
'Private pumps suck all the water while we don't get any. I didn't know
how precious water was until it was snatched from us' SHANTI BAI,
Villager, Bonda Tikra

In its previous report, the CAG had lambasted the CSIDC for "causing a
revenue loss of Rs. 22.09 crore due to the supply of water at lower
rates, non-revision of usage charges and delay in execution of lease
deeds" even as the report said that the Chhattisgarh government suffered
a revenue loss of more than Rs. 185 crore during 2007-08 because of
"undue benefits" provided to various companies such as "allotment of
land and water at reduced rates".

Despite the CAG's adverse report and people's protests, the government
seems undeterred. In fact, it gave its nod last year to thermal power
plants in Raigarh, Jangjir and Champa districts. In their project
reports, most of them made it clear that they would be drawing water
from the Mahanadi. It won't be long before villagers living near the
plants lose out on water.

In southern Chhattisgarh, a large portion of Sabri, which flows through
Dantewada district, is under the operation of Essar Steel Chhattisgarh
Ltd and Tata Steel. Both draw almost 100 mcm of water every year. Essar
has a pipeline network from Dantewada to the port of Visakhapatnam.
Essar sends iron-ore through this pipeline with the force of the water
from Sabri.

According to the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Mahasabha (ABAM), an umbrella
organisation of tribal groups in Bastar, people had raised the issue of
water shortage in the villages of downstream Sabri at several public
hearings, "but government officials never listened to our pleas".
However, Essar denies the accusation. "Our intake of water does not
affect local availability in any manner," says Parikshit Kaul, joint
general manager, corporate affairs.

According to a WRD report, almost 2,600 mcm per year has been allotted
to industry while the state offers only 2,000 mcm for agriculture and
irrigation, pushing many to think that Chhattisgarh will soon have a
distinctive status and its industrial water use will far outstrip that
of agriculture.

"Industries are the priority of the state government. This is not a
democratised development. If this continues, a large part of the
population could start a new kind of resistance that will have
far-reaching consequences," warns activist Agarwal.
________________________________________________

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How Rivers Are Sold to Private Corporations in India

The Water Wars
/From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 4, Dated January 29, 2011
www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne290111Thewater.asp
/
You can lease a river in Chhattisgarh for 22 years. At just Rs. 1 per
annum. While thousands go thirsty

Rivers belong to nations. But, in Chhattisgarh they belong to
corporations. BABA UMAR tracks the sale of six rivers in the state.

IN MAHMARA village of Durg district in Chhattisgarh, Ramoram Thakur, 70,
recalls how as a boy he would sing and hear folklore about water,
fishermen and farmers of his village, tucked into the western edge of
Sheonath river. However, such legends have a tragic ending nowadays.

Seated near a babul tree in the community choupal, the old man shares
stories with children about how the river passed onto the hands of a
private company, which denied villagers water for drinking, washing and
irrigation, stopped fishermen from casting their nets and prevented
locals from taking sand from the riverbed.

"Their barrage drowned a cremation ground on the banks. Dozens of
village located downstream were left with little water. What belonged to
us for centuries is no longer available for our use," he laments.

Thakur is talking about the Sheonath, the first river to be handed over
to a private group, Radius Water Limited (RWL), in 1998 by the
government of undivided Madhya Pradesh through its undertaking, MP
Aydhyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam Ltd (MPAKVN), now Chhattisgarh State
Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC). Despite major losses to the
government, the state didn't scrap the deal nor could it help the
thirsty villagers.

Since then, Chhattisgarh has seen hundreds of companies investing in the
state and many vying for the river waters. In a recent deal, the Water
Resource Department (WRD) gave its nod to 141 private and government
projects for which it will be supplying nearly 2,600 million cubic
metres (mcm) of water from rivers every year. Interestingly the state
supplies only 2,000 mcm of water for irrigation every year.

Carved out of Madhya Pradesh on 1 November 2000, Chhattisgarh wasn't a
water-scarce state. According to unofficial estimates, the state has
32,000 ponds. With major river basins — Mahanadi, Godavari, Narmada and
Brahmani Kachar — and several major rivers — Kurkut, Mahanadi, Kharun,
Sheonath, Indravati, Jonk, Kelo, Sabri, Hasdev, Peri, and Maand — water
shortage was never an issue.

But the priorities have changed. Earlier, dams were built to store water
for irrigation. Now, they are being constructed for supplying water to
industry. In fact, the Chhattisgarh government openly declares that it
is committed to giving water to industries throughout the year but not
to farmers for rabi crop.

THE SALE of Chhattisgarh's rivers began in 1998 when the then MP
government handed a 23.6 km stretch of Sheonath river in Durg to RWL,
pleading shortage of funds for supplying water to industries. In a
shocking story of "corruption and favouritism", as an Assembly nominated
committee discovered later, the Rs. 9 crore project was signed on 5
October 1998 between MPAKVN and RWL on a build, own, operate and
transfer (BOOT) basis. The plan was to build a barrage on the Sheonath
to supply up to 30 million litres per day (mld) to the Borai Industrial
Centre. Construction was completed in two years and operations began in
January 2001.

"We got to know about the sale of the river only when RWL began
harassing us," alleges Khemlal Sahu, a farmer in Mahmara. "Almost 25
percent of the villagers are fishermen. They were stopped from fishing.
Soon, fencing around the 23.6 km stretch began. Iron gates were erected
on both sides of the barrage to prevent locals from approaching the river."

The deal inherited by the CSIDC gave RWL exclusive access to the river
water for 22 years. It also held control rights over the supply of water
to the Borai Industrial Centre and the CSIDC was obliged to provide land
free of cost. CSIDC also handed over its entire infrastructure in Borai,
and assets worth Rs. 5 crore to Kailash Soni, owner of Kailash
Engineering, for a lease of a token Rs. 1 per year for establishing a
water supply project on BOOT basis. The CSIDC was to purchase water from
RWL and later sell it to the industrial units in Borai.

Though there was a lack of sufficient demand for water, then MPAKVN
managing director GS Mishra signed the agreement with RWL. Back then,
Borai had two large and medium-scale industries, and their combined
water requirement was between 1.14 and 2.5 mld, while the CSIDC had to
compulsorily shell out money for 4 mld. Adding to the losses, CSIDC
purchased water at Rs. 15 a cubic metre (1,000 litres) from RWL.
However, it sold water to industries at only Rs. 12 a cubic metre. The
agreement meant that CSIDC would incur a loss of 20 percent on every
unit of water it sold. Increase in both supply or demand would mean
higher losses. Adding to the toll was Hindustan Electro Graphite (HEG)
that was to buy almost 90 percent of the CSIDC's water sales but reneged
on its agreement.

While CSIDC continued to incur losses, public outrage fuelled by
continuous harassment of people by RWL saw several NGOs participating in
the agitation. Those who joined the protest included villagers from
Mohlai, Boludi, Malood, Kotni, Piperchadi, Kekro Koli, Bedwa Pathra,
Vagrum Nala and Basik Hai — all affected by the drying up of the
Sheonath downstream.

The Nadi Ghati Morcha (NGM) started a movement from Durg that reached
Raipur and then Delhi. Roadblocks and rallies were held. The ferocity of
the protests finally forced the then chief minister Ajit Jogi to
announce the "abrogation of the RWL contract" on 2 April 2003. However,
he didn't keep his promise.

NGM coordinator Gautam Bandhopadhyay says, "People had plenty of fresh
water for cooking and working. But they don't have rights over the
common property. RWL may have invested money but the villagers who are
living in the area for centuries have invested resources and have equal
rights on the water."

In 2003, the state Assembly constituted a Public Accounts Committee
(PAC) to probe the privatisation of Sheonath. The committee presented
its report on 16 March 2007 lambasting both CSIDC and RWL for signing a
deal that caused loss to the state exchequer and harm to villagers.

THE GOVERNMENT vowed to cancel the contract "within a legal framework"
and pay compensation to RWL for the lease period after the legal
department and the Advocate General give their opinions. The legal
department reportedly said, "If the government ends the contract, it has
to pay a compensation of Rs. 400 crore." Since then, nothing has
changed. RWL continues to manage the barrage and the reservoir while the
spate of public protests too has declined and so has their impact.

Ramchandra Singhdeo, who was the irrigation minister when the deal was
struck, says, "Without the knowledge of the irrigation secretary,
engineer-in-chief and myself, the CSIDC managing director signed a deal
that proved detrimental to both villagers and government. We sought
action reports from the government over the PAC's recommendations but
the usual reply was: the legal department is looking into the matter. I
don't know why the government is reluctant to scrap this deal."

Current CSIDC MD Devendra Singh says the contract can continue as it has
started to reap benefits. "Earlier, CSIDC was making losses. But now we
are selling 8-9 mld of water to half-a-dozen big and small companies at
beneficial rates," he says. Singh is quick to add that scrapping the
agreement would mean CSIDC paying Rs. 36 crore to RWL as compensation.

Water Resource Minister Hemchand Yadav concedes the deal between CSIDC
and RWL was "flawed and skewed" in favour of the latter. The government
is willing to scrap the contract and pay Rs. 10 crore to RWL as
compensation. "This deal affected several villages and the government. I
guess the controversy will die in a year," he says.

But will RWL accept Rs. 10 crore? "If the contract is stopped before its
term, the termination clauses have to be fulfilled. But nothing like
that is going to happen," says a defiant Pramod Agrawal, RWL project
director. Lashing out at the PAC, he says it has no jurisdiction over
the issue, which is in the domain of the public undertaking committee.
"But the public undertaking committee was never formed by the state
Assembly. Even PAC members never talked to us. It's a farce. We reject
it," he says.

Agrawal says three other projects — New Capital Water Supply, Siltra
Industrial Estate Water Supply and Urla Industrial Estate Water Supply —
were also privatised "and if our project is terminated, these projects
too should be abrogated. Why isn't anyone talking about these projects?
We are convinced the government or the CSIDC don't have the money to
compensate us and abrogate the agreement".
Precious commodity Jindal Steel draws 35,400 cubic metres of water from
Kelo every day

Agrawal denied that villagers are being stopped from using the river
water. "It was on the orders of the CSIDC and sub-district magistrate
that revenue department officials uprooted the villagers' water pumps.
We didn't allow fishermen to catch fish because we were following police
orders. The police wanted them to stay away from our power sub-station
fearing violence."

MEANWHILE, TROUBLE was brewing in Bonda Tikra village, Raigarh district.
Shanti Bai and her husband Shauki Lal, both daily wagers, were living
happily in Bonda Tikra, located on the banks of Kelo, a tributary of
Mahanadi, until a check dam and intake well were constructed by Jindal
Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL). "I didn't know how precious water was until
it was snatched from us," says Bai.
'Dozens of villages located downstream are now parched. What belonged to
us for centuries is no longer available for us' RAMORAM THAKUR,
Villager, Mahmara

In 1996, JSPL tried to draw water from Kelo for its sponge iron factory
and power plant. However, the government refused permission saying it
would cause water shortage. JSPL mounted pressure and it soon erected a
stop dam and began drawing 35,400 cubic metres of water every day.

The structures hampered irrigation in 14 villages downstream. "In
summers, we usually dig the riverbed with our hands and draw water in
plastic jugs. Now, the water pump sucks all the water while we struggle
to get a drop," says Bai.

To protest against JSPL's dam and intake well, locals sat on a seven-day
hunger strike in 1998. When the rest of the country was celebrating
Republic Day, Satyabhama, an Adivasi woman, became the struggle's first
'martyr'. "Her death won't go waste. Our resistance will continue," vows
Bai. "But our struggle's success depends on whose side the government
decides to take."

Almost 13 years have passed since the fight to restore the river flow
began. The intake well and the check dam still stand on the river Kelo
protected by JSPL guards.

The success of Sheonath and Kelo spurred a series of private projects
that saw villagers pitted against government and private firms. Private
barrages and dams over many rivers have come up since then. Kurkut in
Raigarh, Sabri in Dantewada, Kharun in Raipur, Hasdeo in Korba and
Champa, and Maand in Janjgir-Champa have been handed over to private
players.

Almost 60 km from Raigarh, Ghanau Ram Gariya, 62, along with dozens of
tribals in Burbhona village, is waiting in line to collect subsidised
rice not from a rice depot but from an official sitting inside a
community dispensary. "This should tell you the state of affairs in our
village," says Gariya, a farmer-turned-casual labourer.

Till 2007, Gariya and other tribals grew melon and cucumber on Kurkut's
banks. Rabi farming was also done in April, May and June. However, a
huge barrage and a dam that was built 35 km upstream at Rabo village
soon choked the river flow. The water was being fed to 1,000 MW JSPL
power plants at Tamnar. Soon, farmers living in 12 villages, including
Jampali, Kikricholi, Dehjari, lost their water source.

"Since then, we have to migrate to other villages in the summer. Do you
know how it feels when you don't bathe or wash your face for weeks at a
stretch?" asks Gariya. Last summer, a group of villagers headed for Rabo
dam seeking immediate discharge of water from Kurkut. JSPL employees
allegedly thrashed them with bamboo sticks. The distraught tribals and
villagers wrote a letter to their MLA, Anand Kumar Patel, seeking
immediate discharge of water. The MLA managed to get water released only
once in 90 days of the harsh summer.

"That was the time when we cursed ourselves for not joining the
agitation led by Rabo villagers. It taught us a lesson," says Vedran
Dhandsena, one of the village heads. He is referring to the agitation in
which villagers of Rabo, where a dam and a barrage was built, had
protested the construction of mega structures in the village and the
agreement that allowed JSPL to draw 54 mcm of water every year from
Kurkut and release only 7 mcm per year.

In 2004, when JSPL started acquisition of additional land in Rabo for
its power project, residents of 15 villages started an agitation with
tough resistance coming from Rabo village where the dam was to be built.
The dam would submerge almost 350 hectares of forest land and affect
thousands of hectares of irrigated land.

Rabo villagers spearheaded the protest and blocked roads leading to the
project site with tree trunks and rocks. They also patrolled the
entrance to the village for several nights. And soon public outrage
pushed the government to order a halt on the work at site on 4 November
2004.

"But with government officials' patronage, Jindal resumed work within a
week," recalls Champi Bai, who became famous for grabbing a revenue
official by his collar during the protest. She says the government
didn't hold any public hearing when JSPL got clearance in 1997 for the
first phase of the power project in Tamnar. "From the beginning, the
government has worked to benefit the company," she says.

The government not only gave up on the ownership of the dam but also
charged JSPL a paltry 90 paise for every 1,000 litres when other firms
pay around Rs. 3 for the same.

"This is just another example of how the government ruined its
resources, favoured a private company and harmed tribals of a dozen
villages," says Ramesh Agarwal, 55, an activist and founder of Jan
Chetana, which monitors mining, water and industrial projects in Raigarh.

The agreement dated 14 January 2008 signed with the JSPL, a copy of
which is in TEHELKA'S possession, reads, "The company shall pay to the
government rates for water drawn by it from the said natural or
government water source at the rates fixed by the WRD order No.
1819/7-A/WR/TS/IWS/02/D-4 Raipur dated 21.03.2006, which is 90 paise
only per cubic metre."

THE JSPL management says it owns the dam without which "we couldn't get
70 percent of the money from banks as loan". "Banks give a loan only
when the structure is yours," says Pradeep Tandon, senior
vice-president, corporate affairs, JSPL. Last May, the government
revised the rates and JSPL would be paying Rs. 2.80 per cubic metre, he
says. Asked about the tussle between JSPL and villagers, he says the
people's anger should be directed against the government and not at the
JSPL, because "we only work under government rules".

There are other instances when companies have guzzled water without any
proper agreement with the government. According to the Comptroller and
Auditor General (CAG) report for the year ended 31 March 2009, National
Thermal Power Corporation has been drawing water from a canal in the
state for the past 11 years without any agreement. "The penalty charges
for the unauthorised withdrawal amounts to Rs. 316.26 crore for the
period between June 1998 to March 2009," the report says.
'Private pumps suck all the water while we don't get any. I didn't know
how precious water was until it was snatched from us' SHANTI BAI,
Villager, Bonda Tikra

In its previous report, the CAG had lambasted the CSIDC for "causing a
revenue loss of Rs. 22.09 crore due to the supply of water at lower
rates, non-revision of usage charges and delay in execution of lease
deeds" even as the report said that the Chhattisgarh government suffered
a revenue loss of more than Rs. 185 crore during 2007-08 because of
"undue benefits" provided to various companies such as "allotment of
land and water at reduced rates".

Despite the CAG's adverse report and people's protests, the government
seems undeterred. In fact, it gave its nod last year to thermal power
plants in Raigarh, Jangjir and Champa districts. In their project
reports, most of them made it clear that they would be drawing water
from the Mahanadi. It won't be long before villagers living near the
plants lose out on water.

In southern Chhattisgarh, a large portion of Sabri, which flows through
Dantewada district, is under the operation of Essar Steel Chhattisgarh
Ltd and Tata Steel. Both draw almost 100 mcm of water every year. Essar
has a pipeline network from Dantewada to the port of Visakhapatnam.
Essar sends iron-ore through this pipeline with the force of the water
from Sabri.

According to the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Mahasabha (ABAM), an umbrella
organisation of tribal groups in Bastar, people had raised the issue of
water shortage in the villages of downstream Sabri at several public
hearings, "but government officials never listened to our pleas".
However, Essar denies the accusation. "Our intake of water does not
affect local availability in any manner," says Parikshit Kaul, joint
general manager, corporate affairs.

According to a WRD report, almost 2,600 mcm per year has been allotted
to industry while the state offers only 2,000 mcm for agriculture and
irrigation, pushing many to think that Chhattisgarh will soon have a
distinctive status and its industrial water use will far outstrip that
of agriculture.

"Industries are the priority of the state government. This is not a
democratised development. If this continues, a large part of the
population could start a new kind of resistance that will have
far-reaching consequences," warns activist Agarwal.
________________________________________________

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Tanzania: Power Woes Won't End Soon--Drought impacts hydro

(Tanzania is on our "excessively hydropower-dependent" map, see http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/5808)
-----------------------------------


The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Tanzania: Power Woes Won't End Soon, Ngeleja Cautions

Lucas Liganga

15 February 2011


The power crisis is not likely to end this year, the government said yesterday, and as it announced a number of measures to address the recurrent problem.

Energy and Minerals minister William Ngeleja said in a ministerial statement to Parliament that an average shortfall of 264MW was forecast on the national grid due to long spells of drought.

He said there would still be a shortage of 67MW even if there were enough rains to fill all the generation dams feeding hydroelectricity stations.

Mr Ngeleja said the remedial measures the government was taking included providing money to buy fuel for the 80MW Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) generators in Dar es Salaam. The government would also ensure that the 100MW and 60MW power generation projects in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza were completed in December and next January, respectively.

Reacting to the minister's statement, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on energy and minerals, Mr January Makamba, said the measures were not new.

"We are in a crisis. The economy is bleeding. The government is losing revenue," Mr Makamba told The Citizen in an interview shortly before he convened a meeting of the committee at parliament buildings.

"The manufacturing industry, both small and medium, which is the engine of the economy, has been badly hit," he said, adding: "We need an urgent solution now to rescue our economy."

Energy and Minerals shadow minister John Mnyika (Chadema) told The Citizen: "This is a very serious matter that should be above narrow interests and partisan politics. We need to take some drastic measures if we are find an urgent solution" He said the minister's statement was "not satisfactory", and urged the government to nationalise Dowans generators and start producing electricity immediately.

The Ubungo MP said he did not understand why the government had "refused" to treat the power crisis as a national emergency.

In his 12-page statement, Mr Ngeleja said the government was also in the process of leasing a 260MW generator in case the rains fall short as expected.

He said a plan to increase the capacity of the gas pipeline from Songo Songo Islands in Kilwa District to Dar es Salaam was at an advanced stage. Power generation and supply would stabilise once the project was completed in 2015, he added.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Anne Makinda, last week directed Mr Ngeleja to issue a government statement on the crisis, which began last November.

The minister said the country's installed power generation and distribution capacity was 1,006MW, of which 561MW was the maximum capacity of hydro stations and 445MW capable of being produced by generators running on natural gas and heavy furnace oil.

However, he said drought coupled with wear and tear at stations such as Mtera had greatly reduced the generation capacity.

As a result, hydro plants were feeding only 180MW into the national grid, while 280MW was produced by natural gas and heavy furnace oil generators.

"This means that only 470MW is currently being produced, which is equivalent to 67 per cent of national capacity," Mr Ngeleja said, adding that it was the 230MW shortfall that had led to the current rationing.
Relevant Links

The minister said Tanesco was finding it difficult to keep pace with the ever-increasing demand for power, adding that the current peak demand was 833MW, up from 729MW in 2008.

He blamed Tanesco's limited capacity on, among other factors, laxity by the Public Sector Reform Commission in privatising the state-owned utility between 1997 and 2005, and the controversial with South African-based Net Group Solutions, which managed the struggling firm from 2004 to 2006.

The minister said the government was incurring "huge" losses as a result recurrent power crises, citing the $331.309 million (Sh496 billion at current exchange rates) loss in 2006 after Tanesco had failed to deliver over 287 million units of energy.