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dam-l Epupa FStudy finalized, decision next year/LS
This is from The Namibian.
Epupa decision to be made next year
WERNER MENGES
THE final report on Namibia's lower Kunene hydro-power scheme states that
the environmentally more damaging Epupa Falls dam site is the only
economically viable option for the controversial project.
The Namang international consortium of consultants which carried out the
feasibility study over the past three and a half years handed their
final report
to Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy Jesaya Nyamu on Friday.
At the handing-over ceremony, Nyamu announced that Government will
decide next year whether to go ahead with the mammoth construction
project.
The final report was not available on Friday, but reportedly states
that the
Baynes dam site some 40 km downstream from the Epupa Falls is not
economically viable.
That is because the operation of a hydro-electricity scheme there
would be
dependent on the regulation of the flow of the Kunene River by the
war-damaged Gove Dam near Huambo in the Angolan highlands, and would
be affected by drought more easily than a dam at the Epupa site some four
kilometres downstream from the Epupa Falls.
The final report includes comments and input from the Namibian-Angolan
Permanent Joint Technical Commission, which oversaw the feasibility study
process, on the outcome of public hearings held in Angola and
Namibia on the
scheme.
These inputs were also based on the comments of organisations such as the
World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Norwegian Water and Energy
Administration Directorate, which were specifically requested by the
PJTC to
review the draft final report released in October last year.
Acknowledged shortcomings in the draft final report - which had to be
addressed before the completion of the final report - included the
incomplete
consideration of measures to lessen the impact on the Himba communities
affected by the building of the scheme and who have strongly opposed
the dam
plans.
The draft final report put the total price for the Epupa site project at
US$539,4 million - N$3 128 million at the current exchange rate of
N$5,80 to
the US currency - and the cost of the Baynes site scheme at US$551,2
million
(N$3 196,9 million).
A dam at the Epupa site would drown the Epupa Falls and cover an area of
between 380 square kilometres when the reservoir is full and 161 square
kilometre at a low water level.
It would also cause a loss of 380 square kilometres of grazing,
displace some 1
000 people living in or using the dam area, and controversially
inundate some
160 Himba graves and 95 cultural sites.
In addition, it was calculated that the Epupa dam would flood 1,2
million tons
of biomass - including some 6 000 mature hyphaene palm trees which yield
food to the area's Himba people in times of drought - and would
release 2,3
million tons of carbon over the life of the reservoir.
Evaporation from an Epupa dam was calculated to be some 20 cubic
metres of
water per second, or 630 million cubic metres in a year, which was eight
times as much as at a Baynes site dam.
The envisaged dam wall at Epupa would be 163 metres high, holding back 11
500 million cubic metres of water when the reservoir is full.
At Baynes, a reservoir of 2 600 million cubic metres of water was to
cover
only 57 square kilometres of land when full.
It would flood only 15 identified grave sites, affect less than 100
permanent
users of the area, flood 7 000 tons of biomass and release 13 000 tons of
carbon over the reservoir lifetime.
Also:
Epupa Up-date
December 7, 1998
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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