Maputo/Paris/Berlin – October 15, 2025
Launch of the Report: “Without our land and river, we will starve” : Uncovering Green Colonialism in EDF, Sumitomo and TotalEnergies Hydroelectric dam Project in Mozambique. A new report released today warns of the devastating consequences of the planned Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric dam on the Zambezi River. Based on extensive field research, the report sheds light on the massive social, environmental, and human rights risks of the project, as well as the resistance from communities whose consent has neither been sought nor given for this mega-dam.
The Mozambican government and a private consortium led by EDF (40%), TotalEnergies (30%), and Sumitomo Corporation (30%) are moving ahead with the Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric dam project on the Zambezi River. Signed in December 2023, this $6.4 billion mega-dam (which is already a 42% cost increase from 2023) is scheduled to be commissioned in 2031. It would become the third largest dam on the Zambezi – a river already strangled by multiple dams – and the largest hydroelectric plant built in Southern Africa in the last 50 years.
Despite its scale and international backing by the European Union, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank, the project was launched without consulting the legally recognized landowners – the local communities who stand to bear the heaviest costs.
The human rights impacts of the project include:
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Mass displacement: over 1,400 families (8,120 people) would be forcibly relocated, and up to 350,000 people who rely on the river for farming, fishing, and livestock will be affected.
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Land loss: more than 100 km² – the size of Paris – would be flooded.
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Heritage destruction: sacred and cultural sites vital to ancestral traditions risk being submerged.
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Repression: intimidation, detentions, and threats by the local authorities are already creating a climate of fear and discontent, echoing the traumas linked to the earlier and colonial Cahora Bassa dam and of other megaprojects in the province
As French corporations, EDF and TotalEnergies are bound by France’s Duty of Vigilance Law. The French State, as the sole shareholder of EDF, bears direct responsibility for ensuring these obligations are upheld.
As of now, this project exemplifies green colonialism: local, marginalized communities being excluded from decision-making and stripped of their rights in the name of development and the energy transition.
Climate experts agree: ending fossil fuel dependency is urgent, but solutions cannot replicate the extractivist model that has fueled today’s crises – nor ignore the growing evidence that mega-dams emit far more greenhouse gases than claimed, putting into question their ‘clean’ label.
That is why this project should be cancelled, at least until these social and environmental issues are adequately addressed and accountability is ensured for violations already committed. We also reiterate that the project should not move ahead if communities do not give their free, prior and informed consent. This means they have the right to say no if, for one reason or another, they do not feel that the project will benefit them.
Download the full report here: www.tinyurl.com/mnkreport
Link to the Press Release here
Register for the report launch webinar scheduled for October 24 at 11:00 CET here
