Mozambique takes control of the biggest dam in sub-Saharan Africa

Until now the dam was controlled by Mozambique’s old colonial power, Portugal for a period of three decades. President Armando Guebuza of Portugal will be joined by Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates and seven other African heads of state at the dam for a handover ceremony which is being seen as a symbolic break with the colonial era.

“We are finally going to be able to use the dam to satisfy the energy needs of our country, ” said Guebuza ahead of the handover.

The artificial lake created by Cahora Bassa, situated in Tete province, covers an area of 2 000 square kilometers which stretches to the point where the borders of Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge.

A Mozambican government spokesman, Luis Covane said: “Given its production capacity of more than 2 000 megawatts, Cahora Bassa is important for the development of clean and ecologically-sound energy not only in Mozambique but for the big part of southern Africa as well.”

The Mozambican President expressed the hope that as well as continuing to supply long-time customers South Africa and Zimbabwe, it can also provide electricity in the future to other neighbouring countries such as Zambia and Malawi in a region which is facing an increasing power deficit.

 Since Mozambique’s independence, Portugal has retained a controlling stake of 82 percent in the dam while the government in Maputo owned a mere 18 percent.

Situated on the banks of the Zambezi river, the dam took six years to build and was only completed in 1875 as Portuguese rule drew to a close.

For a period of 16 years, during the civil war in which Renamo rebels staged sabotage attacks on the dam, it was in need of extensive repair. It is now the biggest hydroelectric dam in terms of concrete volume in the whole of Africa.

Only Egypt’s Aswan dam, which created a lake covering some 2 700 square kilometers, is bigger in terms of surface water.

Thirty years of on-off negotiations over the ownership of thhe Cahora Bassa dam finally brought to a close on October 30 last year with the signing of a purchase agreement between Portugal and Mozambique at which President Guebuza is reported to have described the moment as “the final chapter of the history of foreign domination,” in Mozambique.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Mozambican government had to pay Portugal a total of US$950m to buy the 82 percent controlling stake held by the Portuguese government.

Maputo is said to have handed over an initial US$250m on signing the agreement, and given a 14-month grace period to come up with the balance.

Part of its financing arrangement, Mozambique launched an international appeal for funds in coordination with the World Bank, inlcuding South Africa’s state energy supplier, Eskom and Zimbabwe.