Maputo — The Mozambican government announced on Thursday that work on the Mpanda Nkuwa hydroelectric dam on the Zambezi river, in the western province of Tete, will begin in 2024.
Budgeted at five billion US dollars, the construction will be financed by foreign investors, who should provide about 70 per cent of the funds, while the government mobilises the rest.
The new dam, located about 60 kilometres downstream from the existing dam at Cahora Bassa, will generate 1,500 megawatts of power. Construction is expected to take seven years, including the dam itself, and more than 1,500 kilometres of transmission lines. During construction, about 5,000 people will be employed, most of them Mozambicans.
At a Maputo press conference, the director of the Mpanda Nkuwa Construction and Development Office, Carlos Yum, declared “The first stone will be laid in 2024, after the financial close of the project. The job will take between six and seven years because it will obey the cycles of the rains”.
He explained that the state will participate in the project through the public electricity distribution company, EDM, and through Hydroelecrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), which operates the Cahora Bassa dam.
“This is participation in electricity infrastructures, and not just financial participation”, he added. “What is most important is good quality work, because a dam can last for 100 years, while the financial participation only lasts for 35 years”.
Before construction begins, Yum said, the design will be revised in order to ensure that it is compatible with the current demands of the national and regional electricity sector. This will involve revising studies on the social and environmental impact of the dam, the economic and financial impact, and the study on the transmission of the power generated at Mpanda Nkuwa. These are essential documents for guaranteeing that funds can be raised for the project,
“We found that the studies made 20 years ago by the government and investors were discontinued as the sector evolved”, said Yum. “There will be a new social and environmental study, since the country’s legislation has changed, and also because international requirements are now stricter”.
The possibility of a dam at Mpanda Nkuwa has been discussed for decades. President Filipe Nyusi relaunched the project in 2018, and it will be the second largest electricity generating infrastructure in the country, after Cahora Bassa, consolidating Mozambique’s position as one of the major producers of electricity in the southern African region.