Sunday, November 23, 2008

Electricity Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)

We are now in the Democratic Republic of Congo. My anxiety level is running very high. The question is, why? The answer is an oxymoron. By the time you finish reading you will realize why.

To start with, Democratic Republic of Congo (I will call Kinshasa), is about the size of the United States East of the Mississippi (and Kinshasa is not the largest country in Africa). Kinshasa is home to rare animal species and a large potential for wealth in the form of highly valuable minerals and natural resources (cobalt, copper, niobium, tantalum, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, coal, timber to name a few).
With all these, Congo (Kinshasa) is also one of the poorest, most chaotic nations in the world; destroyed by Military coups, dictatorships, that by some estimates have claimed millions of lives in the past 48 years. In just about every part of the country, law and order, electricity and medicine are virtually nonexistent.

This blog is about electricity or lack there of, so lets go to the topic. For starters, Kinshasa has the potential to be self-sufficient in electricity NOW, and I mean PRESENT time. But it is not. This is why, like the Tennessee River in the United States of America and its hydroelectric dams, the Congo River of Kinshasa is the host to the Inga dams. Inga 1 was commissioned in the early 1970’s; Inga 2 was commissioned in the early 1980’s.
The sad situation is this, like all the countries I have already talked about, there is gross incompetence in Africa when it comes to preventive maintenance. The people who are in charge of these power generating stations tend to forget that Machines are like human beings, they need fuel to work, and where human beings go to the doctors for a check-up, machines need to be shutdown for check-ups too. Bearings may have to be replaced, with regard to hydro-generators, rotating coils and stator coils may have to be rebuilt. Inga 1 has a potential for 351 Megawatts of electricity, while Inga 2 has a potential for 1424 Megawatts; Inga 1 and 2 combined has a total potential for 1800 Megawatts (1.8 Gigawatts), but the two combine are producing less than700 Megawatts, and had never produced more while the late egocentric Mobutu Sese Sekko was in power. Folks, we are talking about my favorite subject GREEN electricity. The dams have already been built, and commissioned, and are running under capacity because some fool thinks it is better to put money away in Europe for the former colonial masters to keep safely, while the masses are starving and suffering with no medicines in the hospitals.
Now there comes the Grand Inga, this hydro-electric complex when completed, is supposed to be able to supply the electricity needs of the WHOLE of Africa. The question is, how can that be possible, if you are NOT able to take care of the little ones, how can you take care of the bigger ones.
It is like human raring, if parents CANNOT take of their little children, how can they be expected to take care of their older, bigger elderly parents.

Folks, this landscape with all her troubles, have more Hippos than one can count.

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