Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has signed an agreement for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric power project in one of East Africa’s best known game reserves.
The power plant on the Rufiji River in the Selous Game Reserve is to be built by two Egyptian firms at a cost of more than $3bn (£2.4bn).
The project has been strongly opposed by conservationists who warn it would cause irreversible damage to the wildlife habitat, and impact the lives of about 200,000 people who depend on the environment.
The Selous Game Reserve is a Unesco World Heritage site and is home to a vast array of wildlife. (source, BBC World Service, December 10, 2018)
Selous Game Reserve is one of the largest protected areas in the world (the size of Switzerland) with unique nature environment like savannahs, miombo forest, swamps, and rivers. The planned construction of the dam is, unfortunately, located in the heart of the protected area, on the major River Rufiji covering 3 per cent of the reserve (around 1400 kilometres square), but this construction will affect larger area of the river basin, including the landscape surrounding the river under the dam.
Threatments of Selous Reserve by a mining of mineral resources and the construction of a dam with flooding area : Source:WWF
