The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will invite more countries into Western Power Corridor Co. (Westcor), the regional partnership that plans to build the $5 billion Inga 3 hydropower plant on the Congo river, Africa’s biggest river.
Congo will ask all 15 members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to join Westcor at a regional summit due to be held in Kinshasa on Sept. 7-8, said Bene M’Poko, the Congolese ambassador to South Africa.
“What we’re going to propose during this summit is a framework whereby we should aim to produce more than 4,000 megawatts so that we can accommodate the needs of everyone in the region,” M’Poko, who is also the contact point for SADC, said today in an interview in Kinshasa. “Let’s open the doors so all the countries can join in.”
Angola, Botswana, Congo, Namibia, and South Africa in 2005 established Westcor to develop Inga 3 and tackle growing power shortages in the region. The plant would generate 4,300 megawatts from the Congo River, the world’s second-largest river by volume. Read the rest of this entry »
