Projects by Discipline / Environmental Science
Lower Kihansi Hydropower Project, Tanzania:
Long-term Environmental Monitoring
The Lower Kihansi Hydropower Project in central Tanzania is under construction with financing from TANESCO (the owner and operator), the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and Swedish, Norwegian and German development assistance agencies. Hydrosphere has been subcontracted by Norplan A/S, the prime consultant, to provide management and technical assistance for the environmental studies and long-term monitoring.
In a previous assignment, Hydrosphere had managed the environmental impact assessment of the Lower Kihansi Hydropower Project, and was subsequently asked to manage the long-term environmental monitoring studies and the development of associated conclusions and recommendations for environmental mitigation.
Biological specialty studies for this effort are being performed by experts from the Universities of Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), York (U.K.), Maputo (Mozambique) and Witwatersrand (RSA).
- The main objectives of this assignment are:
- To describe baseline environmental conditions
- To evaluate the short-term effects of project construction on the local natural environment
- To evaluate the long-term effects of project operation on the natural environment
- To develop recommendations for minimum required bypass flows and/or other mitigation actions
- To evaluate the expansion of malarial vector habitat due to the construction and operations of the project
The studies incorporate the adjacent river and gorge as a control area, so that both relative and absolute changes in vegetation and wildlife are being documented. Because of the lack of previous study and documentation of the project area biology, several previously unknown species of plants and animals have been identified during the project activities in this little-studied ecosystem.