Africa has experienced economic growth of more than 5 percent per annum during the past decade, but to sustain this growth, investment in infrastructure is fundamental. Much of these investments will support the construction of long-lived infrastructure (for example, dams, power stations, and irrigation canals), which will be vulnerable to the potentially harsher climate of the future. This book is the first to use a consistent approach across river basins and power systems in Africa, including a comprehensive, broad set of state-of-the-art climate projections to evaluate the risks posed by climate change to planned investments in Africa’s water, and power sectors. It further analyzes how investment plans can be modified to mitigate those risks, and it quantifies the corresponding benefits and costs, within the limits of a largely desk-based assessment. The scope of the study includes seven major river basins (Congo, Niger, Nile, Senegal, Upper Orange, Volta, and Zambezi) and four power pools (Central, Eastern, Southern, and West African). The study addresses the entire program for infrastructure development in Africa (PIDA) hydropower capacity enhancements in the subject basins, as part of the region’s overall power generation plans, as well as additional investments in irrigation that are included in regional and national master plans.
Credit: Editors Raffaello Cervigni, Rikard Liden, James E. Neumann, and Kenneth M. Strzepek, The World Bank.
