Energy Technology and Sustainable development:

The Case of Large Hydropower in Uganda

(a) Local tadooba (b) Fetching firewood for domestic use

Tadooba is the local Ugandan name for a widely used paraffin lamp by majority who
lack access to electricity. Source: Uganda Atlas for our changing Environment

Ronald Muhumuza
MSc Renewable Energy Systems and the Environment, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

Date: 22/01/2010 ABSTRACT

Keywords: Energy sector decisions on energy technology mix have an important role to play in balancing
Large Hydro power the competing elements in the sustainable development framework. Over the years, Uganda
Sustainable development has vested her confidence in developing large hydropower to mitigate her current energy
Energy crisis
crisis. In seeking funding for these projects, justification has often been made that proposed
Cost of electricity
projects would improve people’s lives, reduce cost of electricity, improve quality of life and
Quality of life
International debt bring about sustainable economic development. However, present facts indicate that large
Infrastructure hydropower may not necessarily bring about these. In fact, Uganda’s indulgence in large
Electrical Energy hydropower projects has led to an unending viscous cycle of international debts in borrowing.
Population As a result, implementation of various social services and infrastructure has concentrated on
cities and other urban towns systematically failing to meet needs for all. This has triggered
increased migration of people from rural to urban areas in search of services they lack
especially electricity and jobs that thrive on electrical energy. This uncontrolled migration has
led to increasing slums, illegal settlement on wetlands and drainage channels. On the other
hand, population that has remained in rural areas have continued to thrive on woody biomass
through deforestation and charcoal burning. This paper is an effort to diagnose the
sustainability issues presented by the implementation of large hydropower technology in
developing countries with particular interest to Uganda.

1. Introduction international banks whilst the anticipated benefits

As the push for sustainable development among
developed and developing nations continues to
evolve, it is worth looking at the contribution of
hydropower plants (especially large scale
hydropower) in developing countries.
Uganda in particular has faced challenges with
large hydropower plants; some due to badly managed
large hydropower projects and some due to lack of
capacity in terms of financial resources. Such projects
have left the country heavily indebted in the
have remained largely wanting.
These issues have caused many to question the
relevance of large hydropower plants in meeting
sustainable development goals particularly in
developing nations.
2. Background
For so long, Uganda has depended on a single
hydropower plant which was constructed during the
British colonial period in 1954. As the demand for
electricity kept increasing, it was necessary to

increase the generation base, so another large
hydropower plant was constructed with funding from
the World Bank. The new dam was to generate at 200
MW. This capacity in addition to 180 MW installed
capacity from the old hydropower plant was to raise
the country’s large hydropower capacity to 380 MW.
However, the two dams were constructed to
discharge water from Lake Victoria in parallel.
Concerns about exceeding water discharge limits of
the lake had been raised by various NGOs and other
concerned parties before the construction of the
second dam but all were ignored.
2006 was a year of uncertainty when Lake
Victoria water level started falling to levels it had
never dropped causing the then newly constructed
large hydropower plant to be frequently shutdown
for long periods.
Although the new dam was made to generate
only during off peak hours not all installed generators
were operated since a regulation had been passed
fixing the maximum water discharge from the Lake.
The common explanation from government
officials was that there was a long dry season which
may have caused the water level in the Lake to drop.
But many did not rule out the fact that since the dams
were constructed in parallel, this alone could have
resulted into an increased water discharge from the
Lake. That the cause could have been from the
attempt to maximise the two hydropower stations in
order to shorten the payback period for the new dam.
What was sought as a solution to an imminent
energy crisis in 2002 became a major embarrassment
to the government and financiers; and the energy
crisis continued unabated.
In trying to solve this, the government pursued
the construction of another large hydropower plant
just 8 km down stream of the two dams which would
generate at a total capacity of 250 MW. This project
stalled for over 4 years as it was being challenged by
environmentalists and other NGOs due to its social,
cultural, environmental and economic impacts that
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needed to be thoroughly addressed before the
construction could start.
However through strenuous pushing, the
government was able to secure funding again from
the World Bank, European Investment bank and
African Development Bank to begin construction of
the now controversial Bujagali power station by 2007.
According to the World Bank Inspection Panel
report, it was later realised during the project
duration that the benefits of the Bujagali Dam project
were overstated and its risks poorly analysed. Worse,
most of those risks are to fall on Uganda – one of the
world’s poorest countries – rather than the project
developers (Pottinger, 2008).
In a recent article, The New Vision
(25,September 2009) reports; “The 250 MW
hydroelectric power station being constructed at
Bujagali will not lower electricity tariffs, according to
an energy ministry document and the project would
be one of the most expensive power plants in the
world at $860 million. The project was initially
anticipated to cost $500 million”.
According to the World Bank Inspection Panel
report, the results of Bujagali Hydropower plant could
be a project that fails to fulfil the Bank’s “broad
objectives of sustainable development and poverty
reduction as embodied in World Bank policies”.
In light of the above, the experience of large
hydropower plants in Uganda is an important one.
These are investments that require huge amounts of
money to realise and a poor country like Uganda
would simply not manage their funding without
borrowing.
As it may appear, damage has already been done
so it is only plausible to pause and ask – is large
hydropower the best solution for Uganda in trying to
solve the biting energy crisis? Will the pursuit of large
hydropower plants by Uganda bring about cheap and
affordable electricity for all Ugandans? Can large
hydropower plants bring about sustainable
development, poverty eradication, improved lifestyle

and needless to mention a self sustaining economy
for Uganda?
These are all valid questions when looking at
what could be referred to as Uganda’s obsession for
large hydropower plants. So it is worth to critically
trace the gains and losses Uganda has experienced in
its pursuit for large hydropower plants vis-à-vis
sustainable development.
3. Hydropower and social communities
Hydropower is an important energy resource for
Uganda since it constitutes over 90% of the current
energy supply. Also at present, the country is
estimated to have 2000 MW of hydropower capacity
concentrated at different sites along the river Nile
(MEMD, 2007).
Unfortunately since 1954, the one large
hydropower project that was added in 2002 to
increase supply did not yielded good results. Although
it was later discovered to have been a fruitless
project, it did not involve displacement of people and
so the proprietors were able to accomplish it without
major resistance.
However as global events on sustainable
development continued to evolve, Ugandan Civil
organisations and environmental conservationists
were set to challenge hydropower projects that
government had planned along river Nile to mitigate
the energy crisis in the country.
This time, Bujagali hydropower project involved
the need to interfere with communities living near its
proposed site and people’s spiritual attachments with
the site. These communities were relocated to a new
village, distant from their original place. The project’s
social effects were displayed through poor
compensation and involuntary relocation of
indigenous people. As a result, it took so long for the
project construction phase to start since its social
impacts were being contested by environmentalists
lobbying support from other international
organisations like the International Rivers Network
(IRN) and the World Commission on Dams (WCD).
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It is widely accepted, that humanity is at the
centre of sustainable development and that there
should be a balance of social needs such as material
needs, cultural needs, spiritual needs, empowerment,
participation for all and good governance in any
attempt to deliver development projects.
The International Rivers Network recognises the
fact that most large hydropower projects in many
countries have frequently underestimated the
numbers of people requiring resettlement or
compensation for lost land, homes and sources of
livelihood.
Bujagali hydropower project was no exception to
this. Right from the start, its implementation
overlooked cultural, spiritual and social setups of
indigenous people which violated one of the
important aspects of sustainable development – the
socio-economic dimension.
4. Hydropower and economy
Funding
Uganda being an underdeveloped nation she is
not capable of funding highly capital intensive large
hydropower projects. Decisions to develop large
hydropower sites therefore imply that she has to find
funding alternatives of which loans from World Bank
and African Development Bank are normally the top
listed options.
This has increased Uganda’s debt burden
resulting into a low income but heavily taxed society
with vast differences in wealth between social classes.
There is also growing consensus that these high
capital intensive hydropower projects bring about
corruption and misuse of money by the people
involved especially in developing countries.
Also, large hydropower projects involve
uncertainties cause frequent underestimation of costs
and exaggeration of benefits. Thus projects that are
economically unviable have appeared viable and this
has given hydropower an unfair advantage when
comparing its viability to that of other generation

options (International Rivers Network and Others,
2003).
Tourism
Bujagali hydropower plant which is currently
overdue in its completion and in which all risk is born
by the client; ecological natural habitat and tourism at
the construction site were overlooked. The site was
being used by hotels, schools and universities for tour
visits and there was an established business of white
water rafting and canoeing from which hotels were
generating extra revenue.
Now whether it was a wise decision for Uganda
to overlook tourism at this site can only be compared
with the successes of the project and the former
monetary collections from tourism at the site.
Local social occupations
Communities which were relocated from their
settlements had their occupations interrupted. They
were relocated to places far from the river which
interrupted their fishing activities at the river as well
as easy availability of fresh fish for domestic
consumption.
5. Hydropower and the environment
At the World Summit for Sustainable
development which took place in Johannesburg in
September 2002, countries which had major
hydropower development plans succeeded in
lobbying for hydropower to be recognised as a
renewable energy source (International Rivers
Network and Others, 2003).
Although hydropower is now recognised as a
renewable energy source, it erodes the principles and
foundations of the ecological paradigm. Hydropower
interferes with ecosystems and tends to bring about
distortion in natural habitats forcing indigenous
species to die or to migrate.
It is astonishing to note, that hydropower
technology in most cases goes against human beings
through forced migration and relocation to create
space for flood water. The larger the hydropower
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scheme, the greater the adverse effects are to
riverine wildlife, riverside communities and river
ecology (Williams & Porter, 2006).
In this respect, large hydropower technology
becomes another human activity that not only brings
harm to the environment but goes against the human
being – its inventor – in ways such as involuntary
displacement and loss of heritage for communities
that get affected.
Also, because large hydropower plants are more
than often feasible on sites far away from where the
actual energy supply is required, investment in long
distance transmission lines is required. Not only is the
construction of transmission lines costly but it affects
the environment through cutting of trees where these
lines are to be installed.
Other issues like visual impacts crop up and
although Sternberg (2010) tries to defend large
hydropower projects by arguing that their
environmental impacts depend only on plant size, he
recognises the need for future hydropower plants to
become less conspicuous to the physical landscape.
6. Energy technology options and sustainability
Energy is an important aspect in development
and the improvement of people’s lives. But in the
light of sustainable development, energy needs to be
produced by using environmentally benign
technology as well as technology that can provide
cost effective means of achieving sustainable
development objectives.
Industrialised nations have the technology and
the ability to implement highly capital intensive
energy projects and are majorly the inventors of clean
energy technologies. On this note, Agenda 21
advocates for cleaner technology transfer from
developed to developing countries including small
and medium sized enterprises.
Clever choices for energy technology options are
needed in least developed nations if objectives for
sustainable development are to be achieved. Also,
international cooperation is necessary to create

opportunities for knowledge exchange and skills
transfer to citizens of developing nations.
The role of private sector in bringing on board
proven energy technology for sustainable
development is another avenue for sustainable
technological advancements for any country. In many
developed nations, governments have deregulated
the energy sector and put in place policies that attract
private entities to venture into sustainable energy
options.
Most developing countries are following suite
but with difficulties. In Uganda, deregulation was
completed in 2002, with the government staying in
the business of electricity transmission. This was the
same time the energy crisis impacts were
accelerating.
The crisis necessitated quick solutions if
economic slow down was to be restricted. This meant
finding ways to produce energy in the shortest term.
The technological solution would be one that takes an
extremely short period of time to construct and
operate.
Small thermal power plants were chosen but
these have turned out to be very expensive for
Uganda, involving importation of fuel needed for
running the thermal power plants as well as offering
attractive and extremely generous incentives for the
thermal power producers.
Uganda, commands a strong position in the
world as regards renewable energy resources as can
be seen in Table 1.
Table 1: Uganda’s Renewable Energy power potential
Energy Source Estimated potential
Hydro (mainly on the Nile)
Mini-hydro: 18 sites identified by 2006
Solar
Biomass
Geothermal
Peat
Wind (on shore) 3m/s to 6m/s
Source: The Renewable Energy Policy for Uganda, November 2008
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With a total population of about 32,369,558
people of which more than 85% live in rural areas,
Uganda should start thinking about energy
technology options that can supply electricity to the
whole country in the most economical way.
The current rate of use of the energy inefficient
kerosene lamp – locally known as tadooba – by rural
communities in Uganda continues to put people’s
lives in health risks, not to mention pollution from the
effluent produced by these kerosene lamps.
Since Uganda may not have the money to
develop these renewable resources significantly,
steps in energy efficiency and proactive research into
options for cleaner technologies for the rural poor are
needed as prerequisites to both mitigating energy
shortages and reducing pollution from inefficient
burning of biomass.
7. People versus economy
Looking at the various interventions that the
Ugandan government has undertaken to solve the
energy crisis, emphasis has been directed more to the
economy than people. Evidence can be seen from the
location of all the new large and medium size energy
technology projects that were installed since the
energy crisis began. Power shortage mitigating
projects have largely been located near the country’s
capital with a major aim of serving industries with
more reliable energy supply.
Situating energy projects near the capital to
serve industries and city energy demand has made it
difficult to undertake more investments in
transmission systems to deliver electricity to rural
areas in upcountry locations. Consequently, projects
that promise poverty alleviation in the process of
seeking capital from financing institutions like World
2000 MW
Bank have failed to deliver their promise.
200 MW
200 MW
With the majority of Uganda’s population living
1650 MW
in rural areas, this has created a burden on the
450 MW
800 MW
environment since their energy needs can only be
met by existing biomass which is frequently utilised in
very low efficiency combustion processes. This not
only puts the health of rural poor at stake but

constitutes one of the causes of indoor pollution
related illnesses.
One of the most important issues is the
economic importance of cities in sustainable
development. The capitalist system encourages
centralised service delivery which has resulted into
large cities. In most situations, cities have been used
to define development hence forcing most world
economies to concentrate national resources in cities.
This notion tends to ignore people living in rural
areas.
In developing countries where cities are still
developing, people have been forced to move to
cities to be able to access certain services including
electricity, health services, employment and jobs.
It is important to note that prolonged lack of
initiative to provide such services to the rural people
and concentrating them to cities encourages massive
migration of people from rural areas to cities. As a
result, cities in Uganda and other developing
countries are experiencing high growth rates that are
unsustainable.
In all these circumstances, it is important for
developing nations to find a trade-off between their
people and the economy when considering
infrastructure and social service projects. This
demonstrates the multidisciplinary nature of
sustainable development projects and without good
prior planning and understanding; these highly
complex projects can easily undervalue the
importance of people in the big picture of sustainable
development.
8. Large hydropower versus small hydropower
In light of issues related to large hydropower and
related consequences for developing countries, it is
important for leaders to set out plans that embrace
energy technology solutions for the benefit of all
people.
Of particular importance are decentralised
hydropower (also known as distributed generation)
systems that almost eliminate the cost of constructing
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long distance transmission lines, relieving developing
nations of heavy indebtedness and spending.
Distributed generation would ensure availability of
high quality and environmentally benign energy for
rural communities as well as rural towns because sites
are scattered around the country in various remote
locations.
Results from a study by Arthur Williams and
Stephen Porter about energy options for developing
countries, done at Nottingham Trent University in
2006 found that investment in a number of
distributed small hydropower schemes recouped 25%
more quickly than investing in one large scheme and
that the level of investment required for a single large
scheme was far greater.
These results are very important looking at the
need for developing nations to afford good quality of
life for their people as well as development of
important sectors and social services for both rural
and urban populations.
Large hydropower schemes are slow to build,
centralized, dependent on large centres of demand
and long, expensive and often inefficient transmission
lines which render them particularly inappropriate for
meeting the needs of the un-served rural areas
(McCully & Wong, 2004).
In fact, any developing country particularly
Uganda would be able to fund and create a budget for
development of small hydropower schemes on a fiscal
basis without having to borrow from international
lenders. This way, projects targeting people at the
grass roots would achieve greater results in achieving
good health, poverty eradication and would benefit
agriculture than large projects involving heavy
borrowing by the state.
9. Uganda’s energy future
CIA-World Factbook 2009 estimates ranks
Uganda number 38 in the world with a total
population of 32,369,558 people and a fertility rate of
6.77 children per woman. This high rate population
growth continues to negate the efforts governments
puts in developing infrastructure.

The current energy infrastructure in Uganda is
not capable of meeting the demands of a rapidly
increasing population. In fact, the country is currently
struggling to offset population growth effects that
have exacerbated the energy crisis through adoption
of necessary policies.
In this global era of sustainable development
requirements, climate change concerns, cap and
trade policies, Uganda must deploy a significant
amount of clean energy supply to meet the current
energy deficit in the country. However, on her own
abilities and current progress, this sounds a dream to
come true not today; but after hundreds of
generations in future.
Therefore, there is need for Uganda to place her
self strategically to tap sustainable engineering
knowledge and technology from nations that have
already achieved great progress in energy and
sustainability related issues.
At present, work has been ongoing to develop
policies for improving the energy sector as well as
bring on board renewable energy technologies to tap
into the vast renewable energy resources in the
country. However, the government needs to
recognise the need to take initiative and in
implementation of these policies without having to
wait for potential investors to show up.
The Uganda energy policy formulation process
was able to identify barriers to future energy
development such as – high upfront costs, inadequate
legal and institutional framework, limited technical
capacity, lack of financing mechanisms,
underdeveloped markets, inadequate attention to
R&D and limited stake holder involvement.
With the recent development of multilateral and
bilateral partnerships including Global Environmental
Facility (GIF), Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),
German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and others;
Uganda can gain capacity to overcome some of the
indentified barriers. These partnerships will go a long
way in putting Uganda on track for incorporating
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sustainable development practices in her execution of
public and private programmes.
Otherwise, if such opportunities are not
harnessed proactively, fossil fuels will continue to be
burnt in thermal plants, massive wood and forests will
continue to be exterminated for domestic energy
needs and the environment will surfer. This will
render Uganda’s energy future unsustainable.
10. The precautionary principal
Uganda’s future energy planning and
development should employ the precautionary
principal of sustainable development to avoid causing
severe and irreversible impacts on ecosystems. And
certainly, this will lead to the consideration of
alternative energy sources for meeting both social
and economic needs in a sustainable manner.
11. Conclusion
From the preceding discussion, there is high
likelihood that large hydropower energy projects
infringe sustainability in developing nations.
Continued lack of access to energy in rural areas
in developing countries could soon present significant
challenges in cities due to large numbers of rural
people migrating to cities in search of social services.
In a broader context, failure for developing
nations to develop mechanisms for providing
affordable energy for the rural and urban poor is a
contributor to urban sprawl, increasing population in
cities and most importantly the rampant growth of
slams in most cities in developing countries.
As long as the largest populations remains
without access to electricity due unsustainable
decisions, dependence on forests is going to continue,
heath issues are going to continue and the gap
between the rural and urban areas is to continue
widening.

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