Improving the sustainability of village hydropower in eastern and southern Africa

Abstract

Although small hydropower projects have been implemented in several countries on the continent, information on the current state of affairs is scattered, incomplete and sometimes even inconsistent. To a limited extent information is available on technical details of implemented projects, while information on implementation models and their success is lacking in most cases. The current research is collecting information on the status of micro-hydropower in eastern and southern Africa. Information on existing schemes and new developments will be used to determine success factors in improving the sustainability of village-level hydro developments. Micro-hydro has the technical capability of providing electricity to rural areas of Africa that are currently not supplied with electricity. Several initiatives are currently underway aimed at installing a large number of micro-hydro schemes to serve rural populations (see table for a summary). From the analysis of a number of projects it is clear that micro-hydro can bring sustainable development to rural areas, provided a proper legislative framework is in place that allows local production and distribution of electricity.