Travel Guide Inga

Located 96 kilometres from the port of Matadi, Inga falls are metres high. The flow of the Congo River, which, since the Kin Pool, is rapidly taking over many bottlenecks and a pronounced slope, has an average of 43 000 m/seconde. The Inga dam was designed to use the power of the river for the operation of a gigantic hydroelectric complex. A project identified during the colonial period, the construction of the dam was decided in the s, with priority being given to the development of infrastructure and heavy industries. The first tranche of the hydroelectric power plant was completed in 1974, a second phase completed in 1979. The plant has never turned to a quarter of its capacity, many households in Kinshasa, the capital, still deprived of electricity. The construction of a high-voltage line of 1 800 km in length to transport energy to the mining areas of Katanga, did not allow the regions traversed in particular by Bandundu and the two Kasaï to be fed. Studies are almost complete for phase three of the dam that will fuel much of Africa from Cape Town to Cairo.