DRC: Germany wants to contribute to the renovation of the Inga hydroelectric dam
23 February 2011
Germany is willing to invest 600 million Euros in the project to renovate the Inga hydroelectric dam, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reports the PANA press agency.
Peter Blomeyer, ambassador for the German Republic in DRC, made this announcement last Saturday at a press conference, after the Congolese government had called on the international community to contribute to the financing of this project.
The project consists of increasing the capacity of the Inga hydroelectric dam by the construction of Inga III and Grand Inga.
The site consists of two power stations, each of 1,800 MW, and has the hydroelectric capacity to generate 45,000 MW.
This project is critically important to the DRC where, according to government figures, only six percent of the population has access to electricity.
The Congolese minister for Energy, Gilbert Tshiongo, said earlier this month that the DRC has a shortfall of about 140 megawatts, which will reach 840 megawatts by 2015 if nothing is done to rectify it, reports the Xinhua agency.