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[September 28, 2006]

Country to Press On With Epupa Dam Power Plan

(AllAfrica.com English Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Johannesburg, Sep 28, 2006 (Business Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --NAMIBIA has announced new plans and set targets for the completion of another power project in the country's all-out drive to curb the regional power shortage.


The country's power utility, NamPower, said in its latest announcement the 500MW Baynes hydropower project on the Kunene River, west of the scenic Epupa Falls, would go ahead. A new feasibility study would start this year.

Reiner Jagau, chief technical adviser at NamPower, said a dam would be built at a gorge in the Baynes Mountains on the Kunene River by about 2013.

"The Namibian and Angolan governments have agreed in principle on the project," Jagau said.

The hydropower scheme is in addition to the offshore Kudu gas project which is expected to provide 800MW by 2010 and a new 400MW power plant by 2009 at Walvis Bay.

The government shelved the controversial Epupa project about 10 years ago after strong local and international protests, which maintained that it would destroy the way of life of the nomadic Ovahimba people.

Originally the dam was to be built close to the waterfalls at Epupa, a popular tourism spot, inundating the falls and the valley with its estimated 5000 omurunga palm trees.

The Ovahimba people rely on the Epupa valley for grazing during the dry season when they and their livestock eat the palm fruit.

The original feasibility study for the hydropower project cost about R40m -- the most expensive ever in Namibia for a single project. It concluded that Epupa was the best option and that it would take about four and a half years to build the proposed lower Kunene River hydropower plant, which would have a lifespan of 50 years.

The hydropower scheme on the lower Kunene River is, in spite of its environmental costs, the cheapest way to increase Namibia's electricity generating capacity, according to the first feasibility study.

The study was compiled by a consortium of Namibian, Swedish, Norwegian and Angolan consultants under the name of Namang.

However, the Angolans were not keen on the Epupa site. They pushed for Baynes because it meant the two governments could share renovation and regulation of the Gove dam in Angola which was damaged during the civil war.

Namibia sees the Baynes site as too small, despite its environmental and social advantages compared with other sites. In sharp contrast, Namibia regards Epupa as a prestige site.

Last month NamPower revealed plans to set up a new 400MW power plant at Walvis Bay which will be up and running by next winter, according to Simson Haulofu, a GM at the company.

It would not affect other plans for more power plants like the construction of an 800MW Kudu gas plant near Oranjemund, he said.

Haulofu said Kudu gas was NamPower's primary project, but it needed to look at alternatives to ensure that Namibia's energy demands were met.

Talks regarding the sale of natural gas to be brought onshore from the Kudu gas field have not been finalised, and international investment support for the R7bn project is still being sought.

Until the Koeberg nuclear power station in Cape Town experienced a breakdown of one of its units in December, Namibia was importing 60% of its energy needs from SA, which generates more than 75% of the power used in the SADC region.

The envisioned long-term increase in demand has also left Namibia toying with the idea of nuclear power as a potential energy source.

Copyright 2006 Business Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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