DRC to switch to large-scale degassing of Lake Kivu before the end of 2020
The President of the Republic, Félix Tshisekedi, spoke of the increasingly dangerous situation for farms and animals because of the high concentration of carbon dioxide being produced from Lake Kivu in the Golf of Kabuno in North Kivu, this was during the 49th edition meeting of the Council of Ministers.
The Council of Ministers instructed the Minister of Hydrocarbons as well as the Minister of Budget and Finance to get involved in the degassing of the Kabuno golf course before the end of this current year.
“Faced with this danger, the Council of Ministers, on the initiative of the President of the Republic, Head of State, decided that the Minister of State, Minister of Hydrocarbons as well as the Ministers having the Budget and Finance in their attributions take all the arrangements for the large-scale degassing of the Golf of Kabuno before the end of the current year “, informs the report of the Council of Ministers.
The Gulf of Kabuno is located north-west of Lake Kivu, in the “territorial” waters of the province of South Kivu which have physicochemical characteristics distinct from those of the rest of this lake shared between the North and the South. Kivu and Rwanda.
The content of dissolved carbon dioxide is close to saturation from a depth of 12 meters. A possible explosion of carbon dioxide could lead to the death by suffocation of the population estimated at more than two million and create very significant damage to biodiversity. With degassing, we aim to reduce gas explosion by gradually and harmlessly eliminating the gases dissolved in the waters of the Gulf of Kabuno to release them into the atmosphere.
