Water in Central Africa

  • For Africa to end chronic hunger, governments must invest in sustainable water supplies, writes Esther Ngumbi.

    AFRICA, 2017/04/30 The fields are bare under the scorching sun and temperatures rise with each passing week. Any crops the extreme temperatures haven’t destroyed, the insect pests have, and for a lot of farmers, there is nothing they can do. Presently, news about hunger across Africa makes mass media headlines daily. Globally, hunger levels are at their highest. In fact, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, over 70 million people across 45 nations will require food emergency assistance in 2017, with Africa being home to three of the four nations deemed to face a critical risk of famine: Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen. African governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and humanitarian relief agencies, inclunding the United Nations World Food Programme, continue to launch short-term solutions such as food relief supplies to avert the situation. Kenya, for example, is handing cash transfers and food relief to its affected citizens. The UN World Food Programme is as well distributing food to drought-stricken Somalia. And in Zambia, the government is employing each tool inclunding its military to combat insect pest infestation. But why are we here? What happened? Why is there such a large drought?
  • Great Inga Dam project A solution to Africa’s power deficit

    CONGO BRAZZAVILLE, 2017/03/04 The ambitious Great Inga Dam project on the Congo River, has the potential to generate 42,000 MW, enough electricity to power DRC and much of the continent. The initial phase, Inga III, will produce 4800 MW, half of which will be exported to South Africa, the country’s major partner in this project Energy has driven a social and industrial revolution throughout the DRC over recent years and further developments are presently being planned to cement the country’s economic next. The African country’s energy sector had been struggling with ageing infrastructure and power plants that had endured a lack of maintenance and investment , but in 2014 all industry was liberalised to entice development. Regulatory frameworks were revised and a series of significant projects were launched, offering a variety of opportunities to international and domestic parties alike.
  • Angola awards water supply project to Portuguese-French consortium

    ANGOLA, 2015/12/31 A Portuguese-French consortium was selected by the Angolan government to carry out work on the water supply network worth US$301 million, according to presidential orders. The initial of the contracts is related to studies, the executive design and construction project for water capture, a raw water pumping station, pumping duct and treatment plant of the project called “Lot B1″ for 39.678 billion kwanzas, to be implemented by consortium of French group Degremont and Portuguese companies Mota-Engil and Soares da Costa.
  • Taming Waters for Health, Jobs in Yaounde

    CAMEROON, 2015/03/04 Additional than half the world's eight billion people will be living in cities within five years, demographers predict – and Africa is at the forefront of that transition. The west African country of Cameroon has been leading the trend. By 2010, the majority of its people by presently were living in urban areas, putting pressure on infrastructure and city services. The capital, Yaoundé, exemplifies the challenges – swelling, crowded communities where schools, clinics, jobs, sanitation and access to clean water are scarce. Urban agriculture is practiced across the city, and humans share space with an estimated 50,000 pigs and over a million chickens, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
  • Environmental Fair Discusses Waste Recycling in Angola

    ANGOLA, 2015/03/02 The National Secretary of Environment for New Technologies and Environmental Quality, Syanga Abilio, Friday in Luanda said that the fifth edition of the International Environmental Technologies equitable will discuss the waste recycling solutions. Syanga Abilio said so while presiding over the launch of event to be held in Luanda. He said that the activity will coincide with the initial year that his sector will promote activities under the motto: "Education for separating waste and massive afforestation".
  • Congo-Kinshasa: SA Pushes for Grand Inga Hydropower Project Go-Ahead

    CONGO KINSHASA, 2014/11/06 The Grand Inga Hydropower project may prove to be South Africa's solution to the current and next energy challenges if the South African legislature ratifies the treaty on the energy scheme with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The treaty, signed by South Africa and the DRC in October this year, provides the framework for the facilitation of power generation from the Grand Inga project and its delivery to the border between the DRC and Zambia. On Tuesday, 5 November, South African parliament's portfolio committee on energy made a approbation that the legislature make an official decision on the hydropower project to be built on the Inga dams along the Congo River. The multi- phase hydro power station has the potential to generate approximately 40 000MW, sufficient to power half of Africa.
  • f National and Government of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR

    ANGOLA, 2014/08/15 Heads of National and Government of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) are due to hold a mini-summit Thursday in the Angolan capital, Luanda, to assess the security situation in DR Congo and the Great Lakes Region as a whole, the organisation's executive secretariat here said Wednesday. A conference of chiefs of defence staff started Tuesday while defence ministers met Wednesday as well in Luanda to prepare for the summit. 'The aim of the mini-summit is to assess the implementation of the decisions of the mini-summit of the ICGLR held in Luanda on 25 March this year,' the secretariat said.
  • Ministry of Energy and Water (Minea) construction of two new abstraction,

    ANGOLA, 2014/03/03 Ministry of Energy and Water (Minea) has announced the construction of two new abstraction, treatment and distribution system of water in Luanda to reduce shortage of the product in the country?s capital, Angop has learnt. This was announced Thursday in Luanda by the incumbent minister, João Baptista Borges at the opening of the " 9th Conference to Assess the Water for All Programme. The minister said that the initiative aims at improving the living standard of Luanda residents.
  • World Bank's biggest ever hydropower project in DR Congo

    CONGO KINSHASA, 2014/02/23 In a strange twist, the World Bank's biggest ever hydropower project is presently set to serve the interests of mining corporations rather than the people of DR Congo International Rivers has learned that the World Bank has abruptly decided to develop the Inga 3 Dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a private investment through the International Finance Corporation, rather than as a public sector project.
  • How developing water resources in Africa

    AFRICA, 2013/12/15 This feature news is part of Singapore International Water Week’s (SIWW) series of one-on-one interviews with world water industry leaders, Conversations with Water Leaders. In this edition, Gustavo Saltiel, program manager, Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA), shares with OOSKAnews correspondent, Renee Martin-Nagle, on CIWA and the World Bank’s water resource development projects in Africa and the Nile Basin.