Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the 206 MW Ruzizi III hydroelectric project

Challenge

The 206 MW Ruzizi III hydroelectric project is a key development project and will be one of the largest infrastructure projects in the African Great Lakes region comprising Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. It is the first privately financed project that will utilise a common regional water resource to generate power that will be shared equally between the three countries. The project is located on the Ruzizi River, which flows from Lake Kivu to Lake Tanganyika and forms part of the border between DRC and Rwanda and the border between DRC and Burundi. The project will be part of the Ruzizi Cascade, already equipped by the Ruzizi I and Ruzizi II projects, and will be located approximately 13 km downstream of the existing Ruzizi II dam. The project will operate as a hydropeaking scheme and once commissioned, will almost double Burundi's current capacity, increase Rwanda's installed capacity by nearly 30%, and provide much-needed baseload power in Eastern DRC, a region that is otherwise isolated from DRC's interconnected grid.

Solution

SLR supported Ruzizi III Energy Limited (REL), the special purpose vehicle established to develop, construct and operate Ruzizi III HPP, with the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) process over a period of nearly three years. SLR supported preparation of the project’s international ESIA, Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP), Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) and Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH) Management Plan.

Impact

SLR mobilised more than 14 international specialists to undertake the services including baseline investigations (social surveys, and fauna & flora inventories), hydraulic modelling, impact analysis, environmental flows assessment, cumulative impact assessment and assisted with stakeholder engagement.

Expertise was provided in the fields of hydrology, water quality, aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, fisheries, land tenure, gender, resettlement, cumulative impacts and ecosystem services. The project’s ESIA process was conducted in compliance with the environmental and social requirements of the International Financing Institutions supporting the project, comprising the African Development Bank (AfDB), British Investment International (BII), European Investment Bank (EIB), French Agency for Development (AFD), German Development Bank (KfW) and the World Bank.The ESIA studies also complied with the national environmental and social requirements of Burundi, DRC and Rwanda. The work was delivered to the satisfaction of REL and disclosed on the internet in September 2024.