In recent months, Rwanda has experienced long, daily power cuts because of electricity rationing. This began after two of the country’s hydroelectric plants, Ntaruka and Mukunga, which are responsible for providing half of Rwanda’s power, experienced drops in yield.
”Except for essential facilities, such as hospitals, airports and security services — which continue to be served on a 24-hour basis — all other customers have had their power cut daily,” says Walter Klotz, director of Electrogaz — a semi-public water and electricity company.
”It’s the only way to fairly share the energy that is available [at present] while waiting for the situation to improve,” he says.
Butcheries, delicatessens, fishmongers and beauty salons are among the businesses that have been most seriously affected by the power shortages.
”We’re forced to use generators on a daily basis, with all the problems they entail: fuel, maintenance and damage to motors, which sometimes occurs after hours of continuous use,” complains Christine Kanakuze, the owner of a salon in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.
The price of generators has more than doubled since the beginning of cuts. The least powerful now go for approximately $256 (about R1 500), whereas three months ago they cost $136 (about R800).
This is Rwanda’s most serious energy crisis since its independence in 1962, even through the country’s energy needs are not considerable: only 45 megawatts (MW) of power a year. Ninety percent of Rwanda’s 8,1-million people live in rural areas where electricity provision is still non-existent.
The Ntaruka and Mukunga plants are located along the same hillside in the province of Ruhengeri in northern Rwanda. They are fed by two adjoining lakes.
The uppermost and largest lake, Mulera, provides the water flow that is supposed to turn Ntaruka’s three turbines, which normally produce 11,25MW. The water exiting these turbines then flows into the semi-artificial Lake Ruhondo, which in turn powers Mukungwa’s two 12,45MW turbines.
The Gisenyi and Gihira plants, in the neighbouring province of Gisenyi, are both powered by the Sebeya river — and they respectively produce 1,19MW and 1,86MW of power. The four plants generate a total of 26,75MW of electricity, which is barely enough to cover half Rwanda’s needs.
The country depends on a neighbouring state, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the Ruzizi 2 hydroelectric plant (shared with the DRC and Burundi) to make up the shortfall — something of particular importance for Kigali.
The capital’s population has doubled from 300 000 to 600 000 since 1994. But if one counts those who work in the city, then leave for outlying areas at night, the figure is closer to a million, according to the 2002 general population and housing census.
Analysts attribute the growth of Kigali to the 1994 genocide, which sparked a massive exodus of citizens to the former Zaire and elsewhere.
When these refugees returned, they resettled in urban areas, particularly Kigali. Insecurity in certain rural areas has also prompted a flight to the capital.
Since the beginning of 2004, the yield of the Ntaruka and Mukungwa plants has fallen because the waters of Lake Mulera have dropped.
”The streams [which feed the lake] are in a huge marshy valley which locals grow crops in, in spite of all attempts to get them to stop. This is why the waters which feed the lake have greatly evaporated,” says a civil servant from Ruhengeri province who wishes to remain anonymous.
Water is being channelled to the crops, causing the streams gradually to dry up.
Local authorities have been trying since January 2004 to make farmers aware of the problems they are causing and to get them voluntarily to leave the marshes. However, the farmers cannot be forcibly relocated because the government has no other lands on which to resettle them.
To date, the level of Lake Mulera has dropped by approximately 4m — and it now only has enough water to operate one of the Ntaruka turbines.
This has, in turn, caused a drop in Lake Ruhondo downstream, which has affected the Mukungwa plant. Effectively, the two plants are working at half their capacity.
”Even if the area’s subsistence farmers were forcibly removed in order to prevent them growing crops in the marshes, it would require many decades for the tributaries of Lake Mulera to reconstitute themselves and raise the level of the lake,” says Claver Nsanzimana, a member of the Rwandan Ecological Association.
The only hope for resolving the present crisis lies in the construction of new hydroelectric dams or in finding new energy sources.
”We’re counting on building three new dams and on increasing the capacity of the Ruzizi 2 facility, which we share with Burundi and the DRC, but especially on harvesting methane gas from Lake Kivu, which abounds with it,” says Emmanuel Bizimana, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.
The first proposed dam, on the Rukara Rivera, will have a 9,2MW capacity. But the country does not yet have enough money to fund its construction.
There are also funding problems for the construction of the second dam, on the falls of the Rusumo River. In addition, an agreement on the construction of this dam would have to be reached with Tanzania, which lies across the river. Similarly, an agreement would be necessary with Burundi and the DRC for work on enlarging the capacity of the Ruzizi 2 plant to begin.
Even more hypothetical are construction plans for a third dam on the Nyabarongo river, which crosses the entire country and spills into the Nile via the Akagera River and Lake Victoria.
At present the use of Nile water is regulated by an accord signed in 1929 and revised 30 years later. The accord gives Egypt and the Sudan the right to determine if, and how, other countries located along the river and its tributaries may use the Nile’s waters. Lake Kivu, which separates the eastern DRC from Rwanda, has a reserve of about 55-billion cubic metres of methane gas, of which 39-billion can be extracted.
Studies indicate that the gas could provide 700MW of electricity annually. This would provide a lasting solution for the electricity woes of Rwanda and surrounding countries.
But the extraction of this gas requires a colossal investment over the course of several years that Rwanda cannot afford — and foreign investors would have to be found for such an enterprise.
In the meantime, the daily misery of electric rationing throughout Rwanda goes on. — IPS