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dam-l Namib. wind power a first/LS



>From Environmental News Service:

Namibian Wind Power a First for Southern Africa

                                By Nellie Brand

                                WINDHOEK, Namibia, March 4, 1999 (ENS) -
The Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy has announced
                                that the country is going to go ahead and
build the first wind power generating station in Southern Africa. The
                                10MW wind power station will be constructed
in the small southern Namibian town of Lüderitz on the coast of the
                                Atlantic Ocean.


Lüderitz (Photo courtesy Hotel Zum

Sperrgebiet)

                                                                     The
old town was built where diamonds were first

discovered in Namibia at the turn of the century
                                                                     and
was the first German settlement in the country.
                                                                     Today
it consists of a small fishing and resort

community. One road straight through the desert

connects Lüderitz with Windhoek hundreds of
                                                                     miles
to the north.

                                                                     The
Ministry of Mines and Energy has just

published a White Paper on Energy stating that it
                                                                     wants
to develop all possible energy resources.
                                                                     That
includes the Epupa dam and hydropower

station on one of the few perennial rivers in
                                Namibia, the Kunene.

                                There is a lot of controversy surrounding
the project, but a feasibiility study was finished last year.

                                Himba women (Photo courtesy Africa Interlink)

                                Consultation with the semi-nomadic Himba
indigenous people living
                                in the area came to a stop two years ago
because they are totally
                                against the project. The government now
says it is committed to
                                continuing consultation with the Himba
before a decision is taken on
                                the Epupa hydropower plan.

                                Epupa Dam is being proposed primarily for
hydropower and is
                                projected to provide 360 MW of electricity.
It would be a
                                160-meter-high dam that would flood 250
square kilometers, including
                                Epupa Falls, grazing lands, and sacred
sites of the Himba. Several
                                thousand Himba people would be affected and
would need to leave
                                their homelands at Epupa Falls.

                                Because the river is shared with Angola,
Namibia is still waiting for a
                                response by their government about the
project. The two governments
                                apparently disagree on where on the Kunene
River to build the project.

                                                                     Epupa
                                                                     Falls
                                                                     (Photo
courtesy Africa Interlink)

                                                                     The
feasibility study calls the Angolan

government's plan more environmentally friendly
                                                                     and
people friendly. It says the Namibian location
                                                                     is the
more economic viable option, but very

destructive for the environment and the people
                                                                     living
there.

                                                                     Other
alternatives, such as natural gas projects,

desalinization, and renewable forms of power

generation would be cheaper than Epupa Dam and
                                                                     have
less social and environmental impacts.

                                                                     In the
meantime, Namibia also finished its climate
                                                                     change
study required by the United Nations
                                Framework Convention on Climate Change. The
study states that Namibia, like the other countries in Southern
                                Africa, does not emit much greenhouse gas,
but is extremely vulnerable to future global warming due to its dry
                                climate.

                                The Namib Desert is the oldest living
desert in the
                                world. (Photo courtesy Namibia Travel
Connection)

                                Namibia has already experienced some change
during the past
                                decade - lower rainfall, more variable
rainfall and higher
                                temperatures.

                                The Ministry of Environment and Tourism is
now starting an
                                awareness campaign for the country in
general and for
                                decisionmakers. The government is expected
to start
                                implementing measures that will lessen the
impact of global
                                warming on this desert country. The sector
that will be most
                                affected is the water sector where big
problems regarding
                                scarcity already exist in Namibia.

                                © Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All
Rights Reserved.

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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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