Construction of an $8-billion to $10-billion hydroelectric plant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be delayed and cost more if its design remains unchanged, the African Development Bank said in late June.
The Inga III hydropower project, on the Congo River's Inga Rapids, located some 225 kilometers from the capital, Kinshasa, is likely to be bogged down by its design. That design, by SNC-Lavalin, Quebec, entails drilling 70 kilometers of tunnels into rock formations whose geology “is unknown,” according to the African Development Bank, or AfDB, a development bank that works to promote economic and social development in Africa.