Are the Democratic Republic of the Congo's plans to build the world's largest hydroelectric dam still on track?

From a set of sheer cliffs, comes a grand vision.

There are plans to build a massive, multi-billion-dollar dam on the Congo River – a dam capable of producing enough renewable electricity to power vast areas of Africa.

The structure will be called the Great Inga Dam. Located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the station would be equivalent to twice the power generation in China's Three Gorges and would therefore be the largest hydroelectric power station in the world.

The Great Inga Dam has enticed investors and developers, but decades after it was first dreamed up, the site earmarked for the structure remains untouched.

While the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo insisted The plan is still underway, and critics point to long delays, the DRC's record of mismanagement and the potential for serious environmental damage.

There is also concern about the project's renewed pool of international partners. Just last week, Chinese state-owned Three Gorges Corporation withdrew from the project, a source close to the partnership told the BBC.

Then there is the hefty bill, said to reach $80bn (£63bn) in a country that is one of the poorest in the world.

But some believe objectors are judging the Grand Inga project by different standards than other major infrastructure projects. Although construction has not yet begun, there have been a flurry of meetings and discussions between interested parties over the past year.

The need for Grand Inga certainly exists. Nearly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency, a global watchdog.

Attempts to solve this problem go back decades. In the early 2000s, the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbors – South Africa, Angola, Namibia and Botswana – dreamed of an interconnected electricity grid.

They looked at the vast Congo River and realized that its powerful waters had enormous hydroelectric potential.

The international group – known as Westcor – sought to double the two dams already on the river – Inga 1 and Inga 2.

DRC's longtime leader Mobutu Sese Seko oversaw the construction of the two dams in the 1970s and 1980s, but by the end of the century, both dams were dilapidated due to a lack of funding for their maintenance.

Westcor eventually disbanded but their dream of Grand Inga continued. Inga Lines 1 and 2 are now operating at about 80% of their capacity and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has made plans to increase this production by adding six more dams along the river.

These additional dams are expected to generate up to 40,000 megawatts of electricity at any time — enough to power New York City for about four days during the summer.

Through the Inga project, the Democratic Republic of the Congo will play its role “as a driver of the African gun… and a catalyst for industrialization in Africa,” says the Inga Mega Project Development and Promotion Agency.

The BBC contacted the agency regarding this article but it did not respond.

Despite previous expectations that the Inga 3 project would be completed by 2018, construction has not yet begun.

The lack of clear progress suggests the project has stalled, but recent communications from the World Bank – the world's leading development organization – suggest otherwise.

Late last year, the bank announced that it had returned to talks with the Congolese government, after withdrawing its financing for the Inga 3 project in 2016.

The World Bank had signaled “strategic differences” but eight years later – with Felix Tshisekedi replacing Joseph Kabila as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo – the bank took a complete U-turn.

“I think this is the first time I've felt more optimistic. I almost believe we can get it done,” Demetrios Papathanasiou, the World Bank's global director for energy and extractive industries, told a South African panel in February.

This optimism seems to be felt elsewhere as well. An African coalition of financial institutions – including the African Development Bank – recently worked together to help attract private investment to the project.

José Angel González Tausez, president of AEE Power, a Spanish company and a partner in the project, tells the BBC that Grand Inga is like “a snake – it is above and below, visible and invisible.”

In November, Fabrice Lucende, head of the DRC's public electricity company Snell, said that if work on Inga 3 begins in 2026, two of its turbines should be operational by 2032. Hence, the electricity produced by these The turbines will finance the station's other project. Turbine said.

The Inga 3 project alone is expected to produce 4,800 megawatts of electricity. South Africa, country It is hampered by regular power outagessigned a memorandum of understanding stipulating that it will import slightly more than half of this quantity.

Authorities in South Africa have argued that Inga will provide stable, reliable power, but critics in the country say cheaper electricity can be found elsewhere.

A Nigerian company, Natural Oilfield Services, has reportedly signed up as a buyer. Like South Africa, Nigeria also suffers from severe electricity shortages.

Guinea and Angola have reportedly expressed interest in the Grand Inga Dam as well.

So why – after decades of talks – have no new dams been built?

“It's a project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Tawes says frankly. “Even if the project is one of the best projects around the world, it does not have credibility.”

For decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has suffered from corruption, lack of infrastructure, and slow development. The conflict in the east of the country is also making international headlines – even though Inga is thousands of kilometers away from the fighting.

Taos says investors are also “scared” because the Grand Inga Hotel will not generate returns for decades, adding, “Who knows what will happen in Congo in the next thirty years.”

Taos, whose father worked as an engineer on board Inga 1 in 1972, says the lack of financial commitment by the Congolese government contributed to the delay.

Then there is the issue of financing. In September 2023, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo told reporters that the country “still faces difficulties in mobilizing investments” for the dam.

The recent withdrawal of the Chinese Three Gorges Corporation has exacerbated these difficulties. Three Gorges was a key partner, bringing money and expertise to the complex project.

According to a BBC source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Three Gorges pulled out because they were frustrated with the way DRC President Tshisekedi was handling the project.

There was no official confirmation of the withdrawal.

But are these problems unique to the Great Inga Dam? Not so, says Professor George Agidis, a hydropower expert at Lancaster University in the UK.

He says years of delays and numerous changes of partners are “normal” for a large infrastructure project like the Inga Dam.

Refers to the United Kingdom Mersey Tidal Project – Which, if successful, will be the largest tidal barrier in the world. The idea was first proposed in 1984 and abandoned, then revived in the decades that followed.

“Does this mean we are unstable here in the UK?” asks Mr. Agedes. He describes Inga's project as “doable”.

Alexander Schwab, an executive at Andritz, an Austria-based company with a contract to supply equipment for Inga 3, shares a similar sentiment with me.

Mr. Schwab says Andritz signed a memorandum of understanding with Congolese authorities but has not received word about the project since 2021.

He appears largely unfazed by the lack of communications, saying that one in three major infrastructure projects will be “stalled somewhere”.

For Mr. Schwab, the Grand Inga project is “one of the best mega projects…in the world.”

But despite its potential, there are deep concerns about the project's environmental and social impact.

One common criticism is that the dam will benefit South African consumers and mining companies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but not the Congolese people. About 80% of the population lacks electricity.

“Inga will not provide electricity to the people,” says Emmanuel Musuyo, head of the Congolese civil society coalition Korab. It is claimed that the majority of the electricity has already been pledged to South Africa and mines.

In a recent report on Inga 3, DRC authorities acknowledged that the dam “alone is not sufficient to address the DRC’s energy and development challenges,” but said it could serve as a “catalyst” for national change.

The World Bank said it is exploring how it can support the government to ensure Inga delivers “wide-ranging energy access benefits.”

Environmental and rights groups are also concerned that nearly 37,000 people Residents in the Inga area will be displaced without compensation. According to organizations such as International Rivers and Observatori del Deute en la Globalització, thousands were forcibly displaced from their homes and were never compensated when Inga I and II were built.

They also say the first two dams damaged the region's biodiversity, and any additional dams are likely to do the same.

“This will have a definite impact on fish and all animals in the water,” Musoyo says. “When you change the flow of water in rivers, we could see some fish species disappear.”

2018 study He argued that many large-scale hydropower projects in Europe and the United States were disastrous for the environment.

DRC authorities acknowledged that people would be displaced by Inga 3, but said residents would be resettled in areas with basic services and promised “fair compensation.”

They also recognized the risks to the local environment and said an assessment aimed at reducing this impact would be completed over the next two years. However, according to a BBC source close to the project, the authorities have not yet raised enough money to fund these studies.

If the Grand Inga region simply experiences the ups and downs that accompany major infrastructure projects, the World Bank may still have reason for optimism.

But the dam is a complex engineering project, and it requires many stakeholders to work together in harmony.

The return of the World Bank, only to leave the Three Gorges region, suggests that the DRC is struggling to maintain this unity.

Despite the DRC's ambition, construction cannot begin unless funding is secured.

So, for now, it seems as if this project that has the potential to change the lives of millions of people in Africa remains just a grand vision.