After a recent visit to Swaziland’s newly constructed Maguga Dam, the prime minister of Namibia is attempting to regain support for his controversial $3.3 billion Epupa hydropower plant scheme. He has particularly been making overtures to the Namibian media, hoping to impress them with the potential benefits of the plan in an effort to elicit positive coverage of the project. He claims that, as Maguga Dam has demonstrated, the Epupa project will create jobs for 3,000 Namibians, and will attract the development of new clinics, schools, and housing in the area. It will provide for the creation of irrigation systems downstream, and most importantly, will contribute 350 to 400 megawatts of power to the developing nation’s ever-increasing energy needs.
However, the Epupa project has been at the center of an international controversy since it was first proposed in 1995. If carried out, the dam would flood 380 square kilometers of arable land which is vital to the survival of the semi-nomadic Himba pastoralists who live along Kunene River.
The Himba are believed to have migrated from the Great Lakes region to the arid savannahs of northwestern Namibia in the mid 16th century. Among the most cattle-wealthy peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, they follow a seasonal migration pattern which allows them to effectively utilize the sparse resources of their environment. The flooding caused by Epupa Dam would eliminate their most productive dry-season grazing lands as well as those lands most suitable for agriculture. This would give the Himba no viable means for subsistence during the frequent periods of drought that afflict the region, and would cause severe overgrazing and population pressures in the diminished lands remaining. In addition, many of the sacred sites and ancestral graveyards central to Himba culture would be washed away.
In addition to the survival issues raised by local Himba, international environmentalists have argued that the project will have dire consequences on Namibia’s environment. The reservoir will cause the drought-prone country to lose precious water resources by increasing evaporation of surface waters to over 630 cubic centimeters per year, more than double the amount of water used by Namibians annually. Other critics state that the plan will triple the cost of electricity for Namibian consumers and is less economically efficient than alternatives such as wind or solar power.
Environmentalists joined forces with Himba leaders in 1999 to gain worldwide support in opposing the dam’s construction. After prolonged campaigning, the World Bank sponsored an independent investigation by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) into the social and environmental impacts of the proposed project. WCD recommended in its final report that the project should not be carried out without the agreement and compensation of those peoples directly affected by its construction.
This negative publicity, coupled with disagreement by Angola on the exact placement of the dam on its border, has stalled the development of the Epupa project for the last several years. However, Namibian government officials remain adamantly supportive of the plan, and still hope to pursue its construction. Only last July, the deputy justice minister stated publicly that, “ Any well-meaning African government has the duty to ensure that development projects are evenly spread throughout the country so as to ensure that other communities are not left behind, for the sake of nation building…The Ovahimba, like every other Namibian community, have a right to economic development…The Epupa hydropower scheme is one of the instruments which will be used to bring this development to fruition for the Himba.”
In this case, however, it seems the detrimental social and environmental effects of “development” will outweigh the benefits. If the Himba lose their pasturelands, they lose the self-defining factor of their own self-sufficiency and wealth along with their traditional way of life. The devastating outcome of such a scenario has been illustrated in other parts of the world time and time again throughout modern history.
