Monday, September 3, 2012

The most effective governance in the DR Congo



From Emmanuel at Virunga In New Zealand this would be a function of the National Government. Ironic that it has to devolve not to regional government but to an unelected yet effective local government that really would prefer I suspect to be concentrating on its mandated task. However the rangers at Virunga never seem afraid to take on the impossible and succeed.


" The past three months have been difficult because of the armed conflict, but perhaps one of the few positive things about all of those years’ of civil war is that people have learned to toughen up and keep going. Leading the charge are Safari and Jules who jointly manage the construction of the rural electrification project in Mutwanga.  Safari manages the civil engineering.  Safari has been with us for years, rebuilding the park’s damaged infrastructure and overseeing the construction of the schools.  He started working on the hydro electric project 2 years ago, and it’s certainly ambitious project so far.  In fact, we may not have taken it on if we’d known how difficult it was going to be."


The catchment, at the top of the site

"Safari standing at the bottom end of the production site.  The steel pipe behind him will shift 200 million litres of water per day through the turbines…"



"Jules is a young electro-mechanical engineer, and he’s working on the turbines, generators and the distribution network.  He was fresh out of university and straight onto our worksite."


"They’re also building about 20 kilometres of grid to bring electricity to people’s homes, and to create jobs in new businesses that are developing in Mutwanga"

" If all goes well, the lights will flood through Mutwanga in about three months time."


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