DRC, ZAMBIA MOVE TO DEVELOP LUAPULA POWER PLANT

Harare – The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia’s plan to develop a hydro power plant at the Luapula river has made progress, following the two country’s move to embark on a pre-feasibility study that will determine the next phase of the project.

In 2015, the governments of Zambia and DRC signed an inter-governmental memorandum of understanding that gave birth to the idea of constructing a 1 000 MW power station at the Luapula River that will boost power supply to the two countries.

Originally, the Luapula project was meant to commence just two years after the 2015 MoU between the two countries and be completed in 2020. However, due to a number of constraints the project was delayed.

Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), which is the current coordinator of the project, indicated that the construction of the power plant is far from commencing as there is still much more paper work and studies that need to be done.

SAPP co-ordination center manager, Stephen Dihwa, highlighted that Zambia and DRC were still looking at the environment and other aspects to weigh if the project is worth pursuing.

“We are coordinating the Luapula hydro power plant project and as the coordinators of the project, what I can confirm is the fact that we are still on the pre-feasibility stage.

“The two countries, as well as the involved parties, are currently doing a pre-feasibility study to see whether this project is worthy pursuing or not,” Dihwa said.

Pre-feasibility studies can simply be defined as the assessments that are designed to guide decision makers as to whether the project is sound on technical, economic, social and environmental grounds. Further, the assessment considers the existing policy, legal and regulatory environment in which the project would be grounded, and gives a high-level overview of the institutions and other stakeholders – with a view to setting out an initial assessment of project implementation, including financing options.

Dihwa said the pre-feasibility study for the Luapula hydro-power station was mainly focusing on the environmental aspects than the technical aspects of the project, since technical aspects will be looked at in the feasibility study, which is the stage that follows after the ongoing pre-feasibility study.

“As the project coordinators, together with the two countries involved, we want to reach a point where a decision has to be made, whether the Luapula hydro power plant is a project worth pursuing or not.

“We are at that stage where we want to understand the possibilities of this project, because projects like these might look good on the surface, yet there are some cracks inside.

“One of the reasons why we go through such phases when preparing for a hydro project is because hydro has become a bit sensitive hence the need to look into everything before commencing the project,” Dihwa added.

Upon completion, the Luapula power plant is expected to help boost power generation for both countries.

Currently, Zambia is one of the SADC countries that are struggling to generate enough power for its citizens, while the DRC is one of the nations that are doing quite well in terms of power generation.

“Due to drought, Zambia is one of the SADC countries that are not doing well in terms of producing enough power to meet the needs of their country.

“DRC is doing well, yes, their power generation capacity goes up and down but yes they are not doing bad interims of power generation,” Dihwa added.

Upon completion, the Luapula hydro power plant is also expected to uplift the lives of those living in the rural parts of Zambia as well as DRC.