An unlikely country could be poised to build a £64bn hydropower station, which would be the largest of its kind in the world.
Within the Democratic Republic of Congo sits the Congo River, the second largest river in Africa after the Nile.
The river’s undulations mean it is ideal for generating green energy and has the potential to power millions of homes around the country. In fact, such is the energy-generating potential of the river, a dam built there could power a large chunk of the entire continent.
The name of the proposed dam is the Grand Inga. It takes its name from the other two dams already dotted along the river – Inga 1 and Inga 2 – but would be much larger.
The idea for building a vast dam in the area first gained traction in 2016. However the World Bank pulled its funding due to differences with the country’s government at the time.
That said, there are plenty of obstacles in the way of the Grand Inga Dam project. The sheer scale of it (it would be twice the size of the world’s largest Three Gorges dam in China) means that it will require significant investment from other nations and international organisations.
However, the DRC is one of the world’s most corrupt countries and so bodies and states may be reluctant to invest.