The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
SIGNIFICANT changes in the world’s climatic trends have seen a shift of focus in the development discourse of the globe both circumstantial and voluntary as countries seek to put in place sustainable solutions to mitigate and adapt to the changes in climate.
For small economies such as those of the bulk of African countries the issue of finding equilibrium between the need to develop and limiting greenhouse gas emissions remains one that causes a splitting headache.
Most of the continent’s developing economies are agrarian based and the changes in climate are likely going to see the economies significantly dwindling as the changes mean not only alterations in rainfall patterns but a decrease too.
However, not only is agriculture affected in Africa, the energy sector particularly hydro electricity generation that is equally crucial for development and that has been tottering for the past decade or so in the greater part of the continent is likely going to be grossly affected as rivers that feed into various dams and lakes have not been flowing as consistent as before.
This has raised the tempo in global and continental debates on renewable energy where the drive to find cleaner, greener alternatives to fossil fuels such as wind and solar power to reduce reliance on hydro power usually grab the headlines.
Africa has been known for having big rivers most of which were consistently supplying the greater part of the continent with hydro electricity but with the decrease in rainfall across the globe caused by the changes in climate, strategic plans to ensure other sources of power are developed should be put in place.
Africa has however, been paying little attention to calls to develop alternative sources that are environment friendly to end the reliance on thermal power generation and the stressed hydro power.
This is so because most African governments, Zimbabwe included have little financial capacity to see the transition from the green house gas emitting thermal energy to smarter alternatives such as solar and wind.
The decline in hydropower generation calls for urgency and a collective spirit of developing alternatives in the continent.
Director of Climate Change Department in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate Mr Washington Zhakata said there was need to focus on the development of more clean energy alternatives in the face of depleting water levels in Africa’s dams and rivers as a result of climate change.
“There is a significant decrease in the water levels of Africa’s rivers, dams and lakes. This calls for the continent to move swiftly to put in place other alternatives of renewable energy sources to remove pressure from the hydropower that the continent has been depending on.
“A good example of the excessive effects of climate change on electricity generation is that Lake Chad that used to supply hydropower to Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad. It is now only used by Chad. This is because of the incessant impacts of climate change which resulted in the drying up of rivers especially those feeder rivers supplying over 90 percent of the lake.
“Locally the impacts of climate change can be traced in the depleting water levels in the Kariba Dam and Lake Mtirikwe which are currently below 30 percent. This therefore calls for countries to plan beyond hydropower but focus on solar and wind energy as alternatives of the depleting clean hydropower and the not so smart thermal power whose phasing out is only stalled by lake of capacity among third world countries to develop other technologies of power generation,” said Mr Zhakata.
He said the country recently compiled the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) which are climate change mitigation actions, strategies or policies that result in reduced emissions of greenhouse gases by 33 percent and consequently a slowdown of global warming and should be achieved by 2030.
He added that among the priority areas was the need to put in place initiatives to substitute thermal power generation or alternatively find technologies that make its use and production contribute to more greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Zhakata hinted that there were plans by African countries to construct Africa Renewable Energy Corridor that was likely going to have its hub in Zimbabwe. With indications that hydropower – one of the cleanest renewable sources of energy produces more than three-quarters of the world’s renewable energy output each year, the effects of climate change are likely going to see dwindling energy output across the globe.
And its carbon emissions — over the entire lifecycle of construction, operation and decommissioning — are often far lower than those from all other renewable sources, including wind and solar, Africa is likely going to see an increased electricity shortage mostly because of its incapacity to finance the construction of big solar and wind energy sources.
Across Africa, hydropower is responsible for 84 per cent of all non-fossil fuel energy use. And in a continent rich in lakes and rivers, the opportunities for expanding hydropower are huge but the decrease in rainfall patterns caused by climate change remains the continent’s biggest drawback.
Hydropower projects often split opinion. They can provide abundant clean energy for around 50 years without major maintenance and, unlike other renewable such as solar or wind, they produce continuous power.
Climate change expert Mr Collin Mutasa of Environment Africa said the 2015/16 rainfall season made it glaringly clear how changes in climate can affect energy provision.
“The changes in climate brings with it changes in rainfall patterns, amounts and distribution, this impacted negatively and severely so on hydropower generation. One way of getting around this problem is to use other smart renewable energy sources such as solar and wind,” said Mr Mutasa.
He added that there was also need to consider a number of international protocols as funding sources such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and GEF.
However, he said, there was limited local capacity to tap into these funding sources.
Climate change has affected the flow of such rivers as Nile which travels for almost 7,000 kilometres through habitats including mountains, tropical forests, desert, savannahs and wetlands, many of which are rich in biodiversity. Its drainage basin is estimated to cover about a tenth of Africa’s land area and is shared by 11 countries.
For thousands of years, people living beside the river have depended on it. Agriculture has developed in harmony with rainfall patterns, and people have built small dams to harness the river’s water for crop irrigation. More recently, governments have started using the river to produce electricity.
But despite its length, the Nile carries relatively little water because it often flows through arid areas where there is little rainfall or water flowing through the ground. The river’s biodiversity is also vulnerable to climate change, rising temperatures are altering the Nile’s seasonal cycles, making droughts more likely as well as increasing evaporation from its lakes.
It is with this background that climate change experts at a recent workshop in Bulawayo called on environmental factors such as these to be considered when planning a large hydroelectric dam on a major river such as the Nile. They said researchers should study how a region’s water cycle integrates with biodiversity and local people’s lives, and factor their findings into the proposed design.
Other projects that are likely going to be affected by climate change are the water transfer project between Lesotho and South Africa where water from the Orange River in Lesotho was being transferred to the Vaal River in South Africa for use in industry as well as power generation.
The Congo River project that is expected to generate more than 40 000 megawatts of electricity is also likely going to suffer a still birth if the effects of climate change continue to take their toll.
Africa therefore should collectively find alternative solutions to hydropower generation which despite its smartness and affordability as a renewable source of energy is facing depletion due to the effects of climate change.
