Tanzania

The Lower Kihansi hydropower project on the Kihansi River in Tanzania is causing significant environmental damage, a newly released World Bank report reveals. The Bank's Environmental Review states that the project is destroying a unique ecosystem and eradicating several endemic species. The report is causing worries among project donors, who fear the project may violate their own guidelines, as well as the international Convention on Biological Diversity.

In July 1995, the Government of Tanzania began construction of the 180–megawatt Lower Kihansi Hydropower Project (LKHP) in order to meet the growing electricity demands of its mining and tourism industries. The World Bank jointly funded the $275 million project along with the European Investment Bank and development agencies from Norway (NORAD), Sweden (SIDA), and Germany (KfW). Formally commissioned in July 2000, the project has been supplying electricity to the Tanzania Electricity Supply Company (TANESCO), the parastatal that owns and operates the project, since December 1999.