The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Africa have announced a treaty to develop a giant hydroelectric project at Inga Falls, near Congo’s capital Kinshasa, the first phase of which will have a capacity of 4800 MW.
The agreement entails the development of a series of giant dams, which would eventually lead to the project having twice the generating capacity of the world’s most powerful hydro-plant, the Three Gorges in China.

The $9billion first phase is set to begin construction in 2015, with South Africa targeted for half the power and the rest designated for Congolese copper mines.

Eventually the project will see the generation of 40 000 MW of electricity The World Bank said in a statement that the project would “catalyse large-scale benefits to improve access to infrastructure services” in Africa.

At Inga Falls, some 42 000 m³ of water rush down a series of giant rapids every second. With the right infrastructure, the force of the River Congo could supply electricity to Nigeria, Egypt and even Europe.

The project will not require a large reservoir to store the water needed to turn its turbines, because the river flows unceasingly at high volume. This is good news as it means that land will not need to be cleared and flooded.

The bad news, say opponents to the project such as the California-based NGO International Rivers, is that few Congolese will get any electricity, since they are generally far from any power grids.