The Nenskra hydropower plant is a hydroelectric dam planned on the Nenskra River, Upper Svaneti, Georgia. Located upstream of Khudoni Hydro Power Plant, it would have a capacity of 280 MW. The project is being implemented by JSC Nenskra Hydro, a joint venture of the Georgian state-owned Partnership Fund and the Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water).
Contents
History
In August 2015, Italian industrial group Salini Impregilo won the engineering and construction tender. Construction started in September 2015. The project is planned for completion by 2019, but receive high protests from local inhabitants that claim potential negative impacts have not been properly assessed.
Technical description
The asphalt-face rockfill dam will be located on the upper Nenskra River and will be 135 metres (443 ft) high and 820 metres (2,690 ft) long. The reservoir will be about 182 million cubic metres (148,000 acre·ft) and will be flowed directly by Nenskra River and indirectly by Nakra River via a transfer tunnel. This transfer tunnel will be 14.4 kilometres (8.9 mi) long and 4.5 metres (15 ft) wide. The cost of the project is about US$1 billion.
The dam will produce on average 1,200 GWh annually. Generated power will be distributed through a 220 kV transmission line to Akhari-Jvari substation.
Social impacts
Some 400 families live in close by villages (Chuberi and Nakra). The majority are Svans, an ethnic subgroup of Georgia's Caucasus mountains with their own language, laws and traditions. For generations, they have lived in isolation and self-dependence and their livelihoods depend on forestry, grazing and subsistence agriculture.
Geological hazards
Svaneti is a landslides and mud-flows sensitive area. The local cemetery and agricultural fields of the village of Nakra are regularly flooded by mud-flows. Yet according to a review of the Nenskra Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), the geologic hazards and potential adverse impacts on locals have not been properly evaluated.
Environmental impacts
"[From a] nature preservation point of view, not all of these larger [rivers] like Enguri and smaller rivers like Nenskra and Nakra should be used for hydropower generation." Prof. Dr. Frank Schrader, International Consultant on Hydropower, in his review of the Nenskra ESIA.
The dam construction will also include constructions of bypass and access roads, high voltage transmission lines and substations. These construction may increase landslides.
Protests
Hundreds of people regularly protest against the project. Up to two hundred locals and environmental activists gathered in Chuberi in Upper Svaneti in July 2016 demanding that the construction project is halted until alternative projects has been found and the consequences have been properly assessed in close cooperation with the local community.
Earlier, eight activists protested against the construction, blocking the access road to the construction site. They were arrested in May 2016 and released after being imposed financial penalties.