Powering Rural Africa
The Zenzaminga hydro project aims to replace the current use of generators burning diesel to produce electricity.
In development, the term “end of the line” conjures images of remote places with spotty access to basic services. But hundreds of millions of people around the world—people who live beyond the “end of the line”—wish they could be so lucky.
According to the United Nations, 1.2 billion people live without electricity, 783 million people do not have access to clean water, and almost 2.5 billion do not have adequate sanitation. For marginalized populations beyond that last mile of essential public services, life without basic infrastructure is more than a constraint on their standard of living; it’s a social and economic yoke that impedes progress and creates a cycle of poverty and outward migration. In 2004, former KPMG infrastructure professional Daniel Rea recognized this problem in a rural corner of northwestern Zambia.
