Environmental Impacts and Protection Measures in Hydropower Development-Zimbabwe Case Study

Abstract

Zimbabwe is currently developing mini-hydro and large hydro-power plants for its energy starved economy. These developments often bring about environmental challenges. Environmental concerns must always be integrated into the development processes, but Zimbabwe still faces many challenges as it works to achieve development that is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. Many African countries have already launched National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs)1 and national Conservation Strategies, but Zimbabwe is at the starting point. However in preparing and implementing these plans and strategies, economics was used sparingly because techniques and skills to do so are in short supply and in many cases absent altogether. The purpose of this paper was written to fill this gap and to show how environmental management should be used to improve the quality of decision-making in the NEAP process particularly in the hydropower development. The paper is meant for a practitioner in the field of hydropower, who needs to make immediate decisions and cannot wait for more data. The paper tries to capture all environmental concerns in hydro-power development and hence recommends various mitigation measures to minimize the impacts. These may not be conclusive, but goes a long way to reduce the damages.