Hochschule Augsburg

The Mini Hydro Power Project originated from the EXPO 2000 at Hannover in Germany, where the Vice President of Zambia gave a keynote address on 24th October 2000. In the address, German participation in Zambia's development was being solicited. Dr. H. M. Mwenda and Prof. Hans Schurk, both teaching staff at the time at UASA were in attendance, having been invited by the Government of Zambia to attend the EXPO 2000 event.

As a follow up to the Hannover event, a decision was made in Germany by Dr. Mwenda and staff at UASA to participate in Zambia's development under the terms of the Agreement. The Agreement at the time was extensively discussed at UASA and it was pending signatures by the two institutions. The draft Agreement was developed by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UNZA, and it was one of the documents presented to UASA by Dr. Mwenda when attending a teaching sabbatical at the institution in Germany from 1st September 2000 to 28th February 2001.

The identified area of joint research and project undertaking between the two institutions was the area of Mini Hydro Power Generation. This area was chosen because of its relevance to Zambia's development and the wide spread of technology content associated with the project. In addition, as the time, the internet web sites for the Zambian national papers carried a story indicating that the Zambian Government was to spend K6 billion to pay South African Consultants to conduct studies aimed at developing Hydro Power in those areas of Zambia where diesel power was still being used to produce electricity.

Whilst still in Germany, and as a follow up to the Hannover event, Dr. Mwenda made representations to the Vice President's office in November 2000, requesting the involvement of UNZA in the Mini Hydro Power development in rural Zambia. The response was positive from Government. It was suggested that a proposal will be submitted to Government.