ESWATINI RANKS POORLY IN HYDROPOWER CAPACITY

MBABANE – For the second consecutive year, the Kingdom of Eswatini has ranked poorly in terms of hydropower capacity in the African continent.

As was the case last year, the kingdom has not experienced any improvement according to a report issued by the International Hydropower Association.
The report revealed that the kingdom was in the bottom 10 list of countries which ranked low.

Out of 42 African countries, the kingdom stood at number 34 with the total installed capacity standing at 60MW as was the case in last year’s report.
The institution’s annual report, dubbed the 2018 Hydropower Status Report, claims that Ethiopia has the most hydropower capacity in Africa with about 3822MW.

Also, for the second year in a row, the report has ranked South Africa in second position, Egypt in third, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in fourth.
The report found that South Africa had a capacity of 3,595MW in 2017, up from 3,583MW in the previous year’s report.

Angola placed fifth, followed by Zambia, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Sudan. While Mozambique and Nigeria held their positions for the third year in a row, Sudan fell from sixth to ninth.
It was noted in the report that despite its vast natural resources, access to electricity across Africa was limited and uneven, with only around 30 per cent of the population having access to it.

The report said while countries like Egypt had total electricity coverage, in countries like Chad and South Sudan less than nine per cent of the population had access.
“In order to exit the poverty trap, African governments are increasingly turning to renewable resources to spur development and improve livelihoods. Among these resources is hydropower, of which only about seven per cent of the continent’s economically feasible potential has been developed,” reads part of the report.

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