With ELKAP I in place for a couple of years and lots of practical experience and lessons learnt, ELKAP ASBL the non-profit organization of the local Salvatorian Fathers responsible for ELKAP’s technical management and its social development potential, is taking the empowerment of the benefitting community a step further, by designing and implementing a specific multiannual capacity building project.

This project focuses on the local management of the power system and its social and economic potential for the community. Its aim is to enhance identification and ownership on the one hand, and to increase the capacity and skills needed to ensure the successful management of the electricity power plant and its distribution on the other. The idea behind is the awareness of the impelling need to forge a strong link between the empowerment of the rural community of the Kapanga Territory and the management of the hydropower station and distribution network.

The main activities of the project are: 

1. Setup of a management committee at ELKAP ASBL and a stakeholder consultation group; hiring of specialized new personnel in support of the current staff.
2. Organisation of administrative and technical training sessions for ELKAP ASBL staff and development of administrational and financial procedures for the service management.
3. Publication and dissemination of different kinds of information material; organisation of extensive awareness campaigns for a total of 45,000 local residents.
4. Organisation of income generating activities and skills trainings and workshops for beneficiaries in the project area. Workshops and incentives are specifically designed to reach out to the economically poor to develop income generating activities surrounding the use of electricity and will significantly assist low-income families, as well as help to sustain the service in the medium and long term.
5. Installation of prepaid meters and set up of telecommunication systems linking the hydropower station, the ELKAP ASBL office, the three main distribution points and the wider world. These measures will improve the administrative and technical management of the project.