Epupa Dam, Namibia / problems

 

1. Executive Summary

From a hydrologist’s point of view, the Feasibility Study of proposed hydroelectric power dams on the Cunene River has some serious deficiencies. In order of importance, they are: 1) The study is organised so as to be virtually inaccessible to even a careful reader. Separate pieces of the same subject matter are scattered in illogical places throughout the voluminous corpus of the study. 2) Flow data, and estimations in the absence of data, are of low reliability. The entire hydrological analysis is based on the premise that a meagre 12 year streamflow record from a location 200 km upstream of the dam site can be linked with a longer record from another river basin to synthesise a reliable theoretical streamflow data base with which to assess the viability of a 1.9 billion dollar hydropower project. This proposition is shaky at best. 3) The analysis of the effects of changes in the river’s sediment regime as a result of building the dam are incomplete and ignore the most important issues, such as increased degradation downstream and upset of the sediment regime in the delta. 4) The study lacks a definitive appraisal of the thermal and nutrient regime in the reservoir and river. The potential of drastic changes in the temperature, oxygen and nutrient regimes of the reservoir and lower river to upset existing ecological and cultural relationships have been naively understated. These points are elaborated below.

The conclusion is that the Feasibility Study is not a sound basis for evaluating either the costs or the benefits of the project, nor for proceeding with major financial or other irreversible commitments to the project.

An official submissions to the Namibian government on behalf of the Traditional Leadership of the Kunene Region, in relation to the proposed construction of a hydropower scheme on the Lower Kunene River.