The Council of Ministers for the Songwe River Basin Development Programme has agreed to accelerate the 400-megawatt (MW) Malawi-Tanzania hydropower project as consultants are set to begin a feasibility study on financing by September this year.
The hydro power initiative is one of the flagship bilateral projects alongside irrigation and flood management, designed to curb environmental degradation and siltation in the basin.
Speaking at the Fifth Council Meeting in Lilongwe on Friday, the council’s co-chairperson Riziki Shemdoe said the programme should be built quickly to supply power to the two countries.
“The project can feed people in the two countries based on the water that will be captured and released to those areas where our local people are doing farming,” he said.
Shemdoe, who is Tanzania’s Minister of Trade, said that financing options under review include concessional loans and private sector participation.
Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Roza Mbilizi, speaking during the event, said the project has made notable progress since its 2018 launch, citing investments in multipurpose water infrastructure and socio-economic initiatives to improve livelihoods.
“We have made good progress and we are managing our natural resources around the basin in a manner that is very beneficial to our communities in Chitipa and Karonga,” she said.
The programme is being implemented by the joint Songwe River Basin Commission, which is tasked to coordinate sustainable development of shared water resources.
The meeting in Lilongwe attracted ministers responsible for water, land, local government and energy from both countries.
Electricity from the project is expected to strengthen national grids and reach 60 percent of the population, most of whom are rural poor with per capita income of $386 (K675 000), according to a statement after the meeting.
Meanwhile, a Tanzania Malawi power interconnector is under consideration to link Malawi to the Eastern Africa Power Pool, complementing its membership in the Southern African Power Pool.
The Eastern pool, comprising Ethiopia, Egypt, Burundi, Rwanda, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Libya, has a generation capacity of more than 32300MW.
The Songwe River Basin, spanning 4 200 square kilometres across southwest Tanzania and northern Malawi, is home to over 341 000 people who rely on its fertile soil and water resources.
Malawi installed electricity generation capacity is about 554.24MW, with 101MW or 18.2 percent being solar energy.
Ministry of Energy has projected that electricity generation capacity will reach 1 620MW by 2030, way below the 5 000MW target to turn Malawi into a lower middle-income economy.
The ministry’s position is contained in the Integrated Resource Plan (for 20 years from 2022 to 2042, which was published in September 2024.
Among key generation projects the ministry is banking on include the gas power plant of 50MW, Wovwe, Nyika Mbongozi and Thyolo hydro power plants which will add 320MW and the 300MW Mpatamanga Hydro Power Plant between 2028 and 2030.
Malawi is set for major mining projects that will require enough power.
