For people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, July 25 was a day to celebrate. The World Bank suspended support for a mega-dam called Inga 3, which had the potential to cause massive environmental degradation and threaten the social fabric of the local communities. Global Greengrants Fund, along with our partners at International Rivers, have supported the fight against the construction of Inga 3 for over twelve years, helping communities spread the word about the damages the dam would cause, organize community members against the project, and support legal rights training up and down the Congo River to help locals defend themselves and their livelihoods.
Samuel Nnah Ndobe, advisor on our International Financial Institutions board, said about the recent victory:
“Personally I think this is great news as the project was not only bad for the environment, but socially too. The project will not benefit the population of the Democratic Republic of Congo as a whole, of which less than 20 percent has access to electricity. Most of the power that was to be generated from the Inga 3 dam was destined to be sold to multinational mining companies in the east of the country and to South Africa.”
Aside from the fact that the dam wouldn’t benefit locals, the project would have detrimental effects on the environment and the wellbeing of communities in the near vicinity. Samuel states:
“The most affected would have been the local communities living around the project area area whose whole culture and livelihoods would have been effected and the area’s rich biodiversity.”
Greengrants has awarded twelve grants since 2004 to support grassroots organizations fighting against the Inga 3 dam, totaling over $33,000. Below are a few examples of the outsized impact a relatively small amount of money can have in the Congo Basin:
Legal Assistance: The first grant of $2,000, made in 2004, supported Green Lawyers to raise local awareness of the consequences associated with the project and conduct legal trainings with community members to help them to defend their own rights and interests.
Questioning the Government: In 2014 the Coalition of Civil Society for Monitoring Reforms and Public Action used $4,000 to host a training for 50 civil society organizations on the issues, impacts, and problems associated with the dam. The group then organized public efforts to question government support of the project.
Impacts on Women: The most recent grant of $6,000, awarded in 2016, was to Action for Development and Life to host a two-day workshop discussing the impacts of the dam on women, and teaching participants how to advocate for gender-just solutions to the problems associated with the project.
Over a decade of community action has finally been rewarded with the World Bank’s decision to pull support for the Inga 3 dam. While the World Bank has historically promoted mega-dams as a solution to energy poverty and climate change, this decision could be a turning point for the Bank and stands as a major success for the grassroots activists.
Photo Credit: Jullen Harnels / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0