Beyond Mega on a Mega Continent: Grand Inga on Central Africa’s Congo River

Africa has been estimated to contain one-half of the world’s hydropower potential; its Congo River, the earth’s second largest by flow, for one-quarter. Twentieth century intention to “harness” the lower Congo paralleled developments in electricity generation and transmission technologies while surviving political instability, war and political and economic regimes ranging from colonialism to globalization. Lack of investors and markets limited implementation until early 21st century engineers’ recognition of significant terrestrial environmental consequences finally ended plans for a single dam. Grand Inga was reformulated as “Grand Inga Cascade.” However, because planners did not consider the significant relations between Congo River waters’ properties and the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, continued vigilance is essential as new plans are proposed. This paper reviews the intertwined histories constituting the idea of Grand Inga (the extraction of vast amounts of energy at minimal cost from Inga Falls), discusses the different meanings of “mega” as applied to African hydroelectric dams, and different scales of impact assessment. Major interventions in landscapes require evaluation at an appropriate scale, and in a manner more comprehensive than a series of checklists in order to identify fundamental regionally and globally interconnected consequences. The term “mega” is shown to have become an inadequate descriptor as technology enabled ever larger projects. Some have consequences so large and complex in space and time that their origin can only come from a fantasy world in which biology does not exist. This place is termed the “hubrisphere” and these projects “hubriprojects.” There are limits to growth.

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