According to information from the Nile Basin Discourse Forum (NBDF), a total of 3,225 households located in 111 villages are likely to face eviction during the construction of the regional Rusumo Hydro power project.
The recommendation was made during an open discussion with the NBDF members upon the report made by the forum’s Consultant Rugumire Makuza who conducted a ground survey at the area in a period of 8 days.
According to Makuza’s report 1,125 hectares of agricultural land and Wetland buffer for food security among others will be lost.
During presentation of the report, Makuza also raised the major challenges upon the project implementers as lack of access to information by Stakeholders and Inability to process information even where it is available.
“Some people I talked to are not aware about the move yet citizens should be involved in the project implementation and therefore, a robust communication mechanism is required.” Makuza said while presenting the findings of his study.
Makuza also added that there is need to include other stakeholders at government, and grass root level in decision making processes of the project.
On the environmental part, Makuza said that will reduce the use of fuel wood pretends deforestation, and that also the application of the renewable energy promotes climate protection.
The forum in this regard plays a key role in ensuring that the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) programs and policies are well designed and properly implemented in Rwanda for sustainability of the community.
NBDF Rwanda also among other objectives to link the grass root level, and has the capacity to raise awareness on various issues at the community level, and ensures ownership by explaining.
Among other comments raised during the meeting by the NBDF members is the issue of planning for the resettlement of citizens that will be evicted.
The study among others looked at how much additional electricity will the project generate, implementation process & involvement of stakeholders, progress to date, likely negative effects of the project at the community level, mitigation, and compensation of the population and resettlement, benefit sharing mechanisms from the project, and critical elements of community contribution to the Rusumo project etc.
The report will include the comments added during the presentation, and compiled together with other stakeholders’ report from Tanzania and Burundi to come up with one report to be tabled in the infrastructure Ministers from the member countries late this year.
Rusumo hydro power project is expected to increase hydro power production by 90 MW in three countries including Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.
Leave a Reply