Chinese Hydropower Development in Africa and Asia: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Global Dam-Building by Giuseppina Siciliano & Frauke Urban

Author:Giuseppina Siciliano & Frauke Urban [Siciliano, Giuseppina & Urban, Frauke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138217546
Google: 5PWYAQAACAAJ
Goodreads: 34498448
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

6The environmental and social governance of the Bui Dam project in Ghana

Paul W. K. Yankson, Kwadwo Owusu and Alex B. Asiedu

Introduction

Large dams have been controversially debated for several decades due to their large-scale and often irreversible social and environmental impacts (WCD, 2000). There is no doubt that the development of dams has spearheaded the development of many nations. However, the benefits have come at a huge cost, mostly to the local people in terms of displacement and environmental degradation. Due to the above reasons, as well as huge costs and their overruns, there was a global slump in dam-building, only to be revived in the last few decades. According to the World Energy Council (2015), reasons for the resurgence, mainly in developing countries, include the fact that hydropower offers not only clean energy but also provides water services and energy security while facilitating regional cooperation and economic development. The resurgence in hydropower, and large infrastructure in general, in the last few decades has been championed by China with both technical and financial muscle.

China’s new role in bridging the gap in infrastructural development, which in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is estimated at US $22 billion a year for the next decade (Mengistu, 2013), is raising concerns of social and environmental governance. According to Frontani and McCracken (2012), China’s increased involvement in Africa over the past decade has been met with considerable alarm in the West, despite the precedent set by China’s continuous diplomatic and economic presence on the continent since the Cold War era. They argue that China’s growing relationship with African countries has received relatively widespread criticism in the presses of the United States and the United Kingdom, in particular for undermining of human rights, good governance, and environmental protection. However, the relationship between China and Africa is a marriage of convenience born out of the continent’s desire to develop and China’s search for a market (Habia, 2009). In Ghana, Chinese involvement has been very limited until recently. Many projects have been financed by China, including the Bui Dam project, stadia, roads, gas infrastructure, and many more in the last two decades. The Bui Dam project was funded largely by China Exim Bank and the Chinese government, and was built as an Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) Turnkey Project Contract by Sinohydro for an initial cost of US $622 million, which saw a reported cost overrun to around US $800 million (The Chronicle, 2011).

In supporting infrastructural projects in Lower Middle Income Countries (LMICs), China does not impose conditionality around good governance and human rights issues like the West, which has generated criticism that it supports “rogue states” and does not demand adequate environmental and social protection in the projects it funds (Mengistu, 2013). The perceived lack of transparency in its dealing is also said to promote corrupt practices in countries that already have low levels of political governance. In so doing, it sets back the efforts of traditional donors who have worked for decades to promote good governance and sustainable growth (Woods, 2008).

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