Huh? Yes, after some quick research, this astronomical amount of €40 billion would be approximately the cost to build and operate this famous 7,500 MW “hydroelectric potential” of Madagougou that we’ve been hearing about since the dawn of time.
It’s absolutely enormous, even dizzying, and… a very suspicious amount, I must say.
Actually, I didn’t have to look very far to arrive at this result. According to the figures put forward for the Arlesian Volopooor be, we’re at €600 million for 120 MW.
So a simple rule of three gives us €37 billion for 7,500 MW, around sixty dams.
And we can see that there’s already a big problem because by googling the very recent Renaissance Dam inaugurated in Ethiopia, around 5,000 MW
… it only cost them… €4 billion, which, when compared to the endemic 7,500 MW, would give us €6 billion.
So the conclusion is immediately obvious: building a single huge dam costs six times less than building multiple smaller units! 6 billion instead of 37 billion, that gives food for thought.
And it’s actually quite logical: buying in bulk is always cheaper than buying individually, in atsinjarana style, as they say in Madagougou.
Unfortunately, when you’re poor, you can’t afford to buy in bulk or in bulk. Just look at the daily lives of endemic species, right?
A 1-liter bottle of oil is a luxury. Rather by the teaspoon, in kapsily, or in a Madco mini can? 🤣
Single cigarettes or even salt in small “fonosana” cans, oh la la… And yet, by doing things this way, we don’t even realize that the price per kilo or liter is skyrocketing.
Coming back to hydroelectricity, we don’t have the €6 billion, so the issue is quickly resolved. And besides, I don’t even know if we have the equivalent of Lake Nigat in Ethiopia, with its flow rate of over 1,200 m³/s, to run these monstrous hydroelectric turbines. Perhaps on the Betsiboka side? No idea.
And this is where we can see how much hasn’t been done over the past 17 years. These hesitations are very costly today, because after COVID and the war in Ukraine, everything costs 2 to 3 times more to build today.
And maybe 4 to 5 times more tomorrow? Nothing is impossible; the party is far from over. And as expected, everything that hasn’t been addressed in recent years, and which should have been, has suddenly become a priority.
Critical even with this low-water period we’re inevitably heading towards. And it’s not for lack of reminding us six times that this is coming.
We’re getting there, tompokolahy sy tompokovavy. Tick tock.
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