Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Uproar as Uganda plans to dam famous Nile waterfall

Uproar as Uganda plans to dam famous Nile waterfall

Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Murchison Falls provides a hair-raising shot of one of Africa’s most awesome natural spectacles. AFP

Uproar as Uganda plans to dam famous Nile waterfall

The boat edged as close as possible to the deafening surge of water roaring over Murchison Falls, giving tourists a hair-raising shot of one of Africa’s awesome and terrifying natural spectacles.

Tens of thousands visit northwest Uganda every year to marvel as the force of the Nile crashes into a jungle-clad ravine. But a proposal to build a hydroelectric dam nearby has caused an uproar, and debate over the merits of development at all costs.

“I don’t agree with putting a dam on the Murchison Falls, although I agree with the efforts at looking for development investments in whichever area that might be,” said Ugandan tourist Paolo Kyama after gaping at the 43m cascade.

“And reasons for my reservations about Murchison is that it is a very unique tourist attraction.”

The government announced late in November it would allow an international consortium to explore the feasibility of a 360MW hydro plant in Murchison Falls National Park, a protected zone boasting wetlands of international importance.

The decision stunned conservationists, who just three months earlier had been celebrating after the government abandoned the contentious project following a sustained protest by tourism operators, green activists and local communities.

The government said the new proposal looks at damming Uhuru Falls, a smaller cascade nearby, not Murchison Falls as originally envisioned.

Uhuru Falls is adjacent to Murchison Falls on the Victoria Nile, separated by a narrow rocky strip. It was formed in 1962 when powerful floods cut a second channel just upstream.

“We cannot just say no, or yes, without a feasibility study. So everything must be backed up by science,” said Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities Godfrey Kiwanda of the policy reversal.

“What made cabinet rescind its position of just not saying no? It was basically that let’s back our no or yes with science.”

Disappearing falls

The feasibility study will be led by Bonang Power and Energy (Pty) Ltd, a little-known South African company that was enlisted for the first proposal.

The amended plan makes little difference to opponents of the project, who say the two falls are interconnected, and damming either risks the health of the ecosystem and its tourist appeal.

It would be a far cry from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a gigantic project on the Blue Nile that when completed will be capable of producing 6,000MW, and is fiercely resisted by Egypt, which fears its water supply could be at stake.

But waterfalls elsewhere along the Nile have dried up and vanished in recent decades in the wake of major hydropower ventures in Uganda, which sources 80 per cent of its electricity from its rivers.

The most recent was Karuma, a once-grand cascade at the entrance to Murchison Falls National Park. A mammoth 840MW plant slated for Ayago, another set of falls further inside the park, could become Uganda’s largest hydro plant.

Uganda Tour Operators Organisation vice-president Benedict Ntale said: “We have lost so much. We can’t lose everything . . . Why don’t we spare this particular one? Are we going to dot the entire Nile with dams?”

Tourism is Uganda’s biggest earner of foreign exchange, and the industry generates close to 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Murchison Falls National Park attracted 75,000 tourists in 2016, making it the second-most visited protected area in the country.

It served as the backdrop for the 1951 Hollywood adventure classic The African Queen starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, helping put it on the map.

Ntale said: “When you touch Murchison Falls, or you take Murchison Falls out of the equation of Uganda tourism, then you kill the whole industry.”

Power struggle

The pristine landscape has been marred by wide roads and construction as other energy and infrastructure projects have encroached on the park. French multinational integrated oil and gas company Total SA has an oil field venture in the park’s western reaches.

Kris Erard, a Belgian tourist and return visitor to Uganda, hoped any prospective hydropower project would bring economic benefits to the region and its people, but was sceptical.

“As long as the locals take advantage of it, I’m all for it,” he told AFP at Murchison Falls National Park.

Just 26 per cent of Ugandans are connected to the nation’s electricity grid – a figure the government hopes to triple by 2040.

But critics say there are other ways to generate power that are less controversial or potentially harmful than damming the celebrated waterfalls.

Ntale said: “What we are saying is that there are other sources of energy today. Technologies are changing, everything is improving.

“So why don’t we look at those other alternatives for power generation, so we can preserve the falls.”

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Rare plant fetches high prices from Thai, Chinese

    Many types of plants found in Cambodia are used as traditional herbs to treat various diseases, such as giloy or guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia) or aromatic/sand ginger (Kaempferia galangal) or rough cocklebur (Xanthium Strumartium). There is also a plant called coral, which is rarely grown

  • Cambodia returns 15M Covid jabs to China

    Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia will return 15 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to China for donation to other countries. The vaccines in question were ordered but had not yet arrived in Cambodia. While presiding over the Ministry of Health’s annual meeting held on

  • Wat Phnom hornbills attract tourists, locals

    Thanks to the arrival of a friendly flock of great hornbills, Hour Rithy, a former aviculturist – or raiser of birds – in Kratie province turned Phnom Penh tuk tuk driver, has seen a partial return to his former profession. He has become something of a guide