AFRICA - ELECTRICITY ADVANCES IN AFRICA. POWER DOUBLED IN CONGO. CONTINENT’S HYDRO-ELECTRIC RESOURCES ARE TURNED TO ITS OWN ADVANTAGE AT LAST

Rome (Fides Service) – Projects for providing electricity throughout sub-Saharan Africa are making progress. On 23 September at Imboulou in Republic of Congo work began to construct the largest hydroelectric plant the country has ever had. The plant will be the main support for production and distribution of electricity from north to south of the country. Situated between the regions of Pool and Plateaux, the plant has 120 MW and it will bring electrical power in Congo to 234 MW.
On the same day the governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia signed an agreement for the construction of a electricity network to cover the three countries. The project includes electricity lines linking Serenje in Zambia to Mbeya in Tanzania to Arusha in Tanzania and finally to Nairobi in Kenya and the boosting of Tanzania’s power transport system for better distribution of the product. Work will start in October 2004 to be completed by 2006.
Africa has enormous electricity potential for the greater part still to be exploited. At last these vast resources are being turned to the advantage of the continent and its peoples. LM (Fides Service 26/9/2003 EM lines 21 Words: 209)