Government is negotiating a seemingly irreversible bend towards wholly rehabilitating Lagdo dam in the North Region for an optimal energy supply to households and industries within and without the area. If assurances given yesterday October 4, 2017 by investors from Voith Hydro Group after meeting with Energy and Water Resources Minister are anything to solely rely on, then the dream of beating back life into the dilapidated plant could be realised in no distant future. The Group’s Commercial Director Quentin Seringe told the press after holding talks with Minister Basile Atangana Kouna that they are interested in the project.
A hope-raising announcement that certainly took the inhabitants of the North Region off their seats in ecstasy looking at what they have endured of late in terms of energy supply. The population of the North Region is thus impatiently awaiting effective field work to make their joy complete. Understandably so as epileptic energy supply has been part and parcel of their daily lives for some times now. Available information indicates that the rehabilitation works, estimated in the neighbourhood of FCFA 100 billion, will among others augment the capacity of the dam from 72 MW to 80 MW upon completion.
Even as mobilising the fabulous sum to effectively and wholly carry out the rehabilitation works continuous, amidst an unhealthy global economic environment anyway, doing so and urgently too is, to say the least, imperative. The dam has been the main source of energy supply to the region since going into full operation for decades now.
Feasibilities studies carried out prior to the announced rehabilitation works speak of an already saturated plant and an exponential growth in energy needs from households and industries. A 7.8 per cent annual energy demand requires optimal production, an exigency the old Lagdo dam could no longer meet. Rehabilitation is therefore indispensable. Celerity in the process shouldn’t be an option, but efficiency must not be thrown to the dogs. Even with all these, alternative sources of energy supply must be sought for the region and the rest of the country. For, the population is growing and times are changing with ever growing energy needs.