Ovahimba and Ovatjimba community leaders have called for all activities related to the proposed 878-megawatt Baynes Hydropower Project on the Kunene River to be suspended.
This is until the Namibian and Angolan governments conduct an inclusive consultation process with communities who say their ancestral land is at risk.
The leaders handed a petition carrying 2 011 signatures to mines and energy minister Modestus Amutse in Windhoek on Sunday, demanding that the two governments and the Lower Cunene Hydropower Authority stop advancing the project until affected communities have been properly informed and consulted.
The petition, signed by community members in Namibia and Angola, warns that the proposed dam could flood approximately 57 square kilometres of ancestral territory, threatening homes, ancestral graves, sacred sites, grazing land and water sources used by pastoral communities.
The communities say they have not been meaningfully consulted about a project that could permanently alter their livelihoods, cultural practices and connection to the land.
“The Kunene River and our ancestral land sustain our livelihoods, culture and identity. Baynes activities must stop until there is a genuine process that respects our rights and our own ways of making decisions,” delegation member Kaujorua Hembunga says.
The petitioners reject the suggestion that engagement through the Kunene North Traditional Leaders Forum constitutes consultation with their communities, saying the forum does not represent them.
Chief Mutaambanda Kapika of the Ombuku Kapika Traditional Authority says the communities have their own representatives, customary laws and decision-making processes that should be respected.
“Engagement with a forum that does not represent us cannot be treated as our consent,” Kapika says.
The Baynes project is a proposed joint development by Namibia and Angola involving main and regulating dams, as well as roads and electricity transmission infrastructure. The project is being advanced by NamPower and Angola’s Rede Nacional de Transporte de Electricidade.
