Cornélio Pacate has worked as a farmer all his life in the village of Chacucoma, along the banks of the lower Zambezi river in rural Mozambique. Today, he fears having to leave his homeland to give way to a $4.5 billion mega dam.
An estimated 1,400 families could be displaced by the Mphanda Nkuwa hydropower project due to be built across the river in what would be Southern Africa’s largest dam. Another 200,000 people could be affected downstream.
The government of Mozambique has touted the 1.5GW Mphanda Nkuwa dam, in the district of Marara, Tete province, as key for the southern African nation to address energy poverty and reach its goal of universal energy access by 2030.
But environmental groups say the dam threatens to negatively impact local communities and ecosystems. Local people told Climate Home News they haven’t been consulted on the project and have only heard about it through non-official sources.
Moreover, climate impacts and increasingly erratic rainfall risk making the project unviable, scientists say.
In spite of outcry from local people and green groups, both the World Bank, through its private investment arm the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) are supporting the project and pushing for the dam’s construction.
The project is expected to “accelerate the transition to clean energy to combat climate change in Southern Africa,” said IFC.
In May last year, the two development institutions acted as advisors to develop the dam, hoping it will become “attractive to reputable developers, financiers and investors to ensure competitive and least-cost power for Mozambique and the region,” AfDB said in a statement.
Sources told Climate Home that the European Union and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have considered getting involved, but have not yet made a final decision.
At the end of 2022, Mozambique became Africa’s newest gas exporter despite 72% of its population having no electricity access. The Mphanda Nkuwa dam is the country’s largest venture into renewable energy and is designed to supply power domestically.
Yet, studies have shown that large-scale hydro may not be as clean as previously thought. While considered a source of low-carbon energy, large hydropower projects emit significant amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The social impact of large hydro projects has also been criticised for violating indigenous peoples and local communities’ rights, and increasing the risk of over-topping and flooding for people living downstream.