Environment and Social Impact Assessment of Hydropower Project on Surrounding Community. Case of Rusomo Hydropower Plant in Kirehe district, Rwanda

Abstract

Rural electrification has the ability to improve the standard of living of individuals who inhabit remote regions of the world. Electrification is widely believed to contribute to the achievement of the sustainable Development Goals, based on the assumption that sustainable access to modern energy services fosters economic and social development, and leads to improvements in the quality of life. The purpose of the paper was to investigate the social impact of hydropower project among the surrounding community in Kirehe district where, it is realized in most of local areas of the district. The purpose of this paper was the Environment and social impact Assessment of hydropower project on surrounding community in Rusumo hydropower plant in Kirehe district, the study targeted a population of 580 respondents including the 365 households with electricity, 195 households without electricity and 20 local leaders. The purposive sampling technique was used while sample of the study obtained by using Morgan and Robert table to get sample size of 232 from in local area of Kirehe district. Data collection was done through questionnaires and interview. Findings shown that hydropower project affect the community surroundings positively where it influence  different service such as education service, communication and technology service, agricultural service, household services , income generating activities and security service  and those service have the mean of 1.7643 and its standard deviation of 0.79462 and results revealed that the hydropower project improved the socio economic development of the community of KIREHE  with the correlation coefficients of r=0.861 which is strongly positive and statistically significance mean that hydropower project impacted positively the surrounding community in Kirehe district and this study will help the community administration about the environmental impact on community surrounding due  to the hydropower power plant.