H1 2026 Evaluation
DR Congo Reservoir Transparency
F0Opaque — Ranked #161 out of 167 countries
weight 30%
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Primary source evaluated
Dimension breakdown
Data Availability
20% of total score
No current storage volume or water level data is publicly accessible from any DRC government or operator source. SNEL's website lists only installed capacity (MW) and mentions Inga I & II output, but publishes no operational hydrological data whatsoever. Critically, Inga I (351 MW) and Inga II (1,424 MW) are run-of-river structures on the Congo River, not storage reservoirs; there is no reservoir pool to report on. METTELSAT, the national hydrometeorological agency, has no public data portal. REGIDESO publishes annual financial statements (water volumes produced for distribution, not dam storage). A German third-party repository (GRDC) holds historical Kinshasa gauge discharge records through 2010, but this is not a DRC government publication.
Technical Accessibility
15% of total score
No REST API, no open data portal, and no machine-readable download format exists from any DRC national authority for hydropower or reservoir data. SNEL's website is static HTML in French. CICOS operates a Système d'Information Hydrologique (SIH) in development but does not expose a public API or bulk download. METTELSAT has no known online data interface. The only machine-readable hydrological records for the Congo River are hosted by external institutions (GRDC, academic repositories), none of which are operated or controlled by DRC.
Coverage
30% of total score
Capacity-weighted (v1.3.0): 0/~10 Mm³ = 0% (Inga complex is run-of-river with negligible regulated storage; structural near-zero denominator and zero public data). Prior justification (preserved for context): Denominator (RTI methodology): reservoirs with capacity >10 hm³. DRC has very few qualifying reservoirs: Inga I and Inga II are run-of-river structures with negligible storage; Nzilo/Delcommune (~140 Mm³) on the Lualaba and Nseke (~440 Mm³, Mwadingusha cascade) are the only large impoundments above the threshold, alongside the smaller Koni/Mwadingusha (~30 Mm³) and Sanga (~70 Mm³). Total qualifying set: approximately 3–5 reservoirs. None has publicly accessible storage data — SNEL publishes only static MW capacity, METTELSAT has no data portal. Coverage rate is 0/~4 = 0%. The structural reality — most large hydropower assets are run-of-river — limits both the denominator and the relevance of storage transparency as a metric, but qualifying reservoirs exist and none are reported.
Historical Depth
13% of total score
No multi-year machine-readable archive of reservoir storage or dam operations is publicly available from DRC institutions. The GRDC holds Kinshasa River gauge records dating back to 1903, but data beyond 2010 is sparse and publication was by a German institution. SNEL annual reports referenced in academic literature (e.g., SNEL Annual Report 2000) are not available for download through official channels. METTELSAT's 38-station monitoring network, installed from 2016 onward with World Bank support, does not publish time-series data online. Academic satellite-derived surface water storage datasets cover 1992–2015 but are third-party products.
Update Frequency
10% of total score
No scheduled or routine publication of hydropower or reservoir data exists. SNEL's website content appears static and infrequently maintained; the most recent operational targets cited (2022) suggest the site is not updated for current conditions. REGIDESO publishes financial statements occasionally (e.g., June 2025 Kinshasa press conference), but these cover water distribution volumes, not dam operations. There is no evidence of weekly, monthly, or even annual data releases relating to reservoir fill or river intake.
Methodological Transparency
8% of total score
No measurement methodology for water levels, discharge, or storage volumes is published by SNEL, METTELSAT, or any DRC government body. World Bank and GFDRR project documents describe the planned strengthening of METTELSAT's monitoring network (26 hydro-pluviometric stations near Ndjili), but no standards document or measurement protocol is publicly accessible. CICOS references WMO frameworks for the Congo-HYCOS programme, providing an indirect methodological basis for the gauge network, but the DRC itself has not published technical standards for dam or reservoir monitoring.
Language and Usability
5% of total score
French is the sole language of all official DRC sources: SNEL's website, METTELSAT documentation, REGIDESO reports, and CICOS publications are exclusively in French. No English-language interface, data portal, or documentation is offered by any DRC national institution. The partial credit (8/100) reflects that French is itself a widely accessible international language — significantly more usable than, e.g., Arabic-only or Chinese-only sources — and that international partner reports (World Bank, GFDRR, African Development Bank) covering DRC are available in English, though these are not DRC government publications.
Evaluator notes
DR Congo presents one of the lowest RTI scores in the 2026 evaluation, reflecting three compounding factors. First, the country's primary hydropower assets — Inga I (351 MW, commissioned 1972) and Inga II (1,424 MW, commissioned 1982) — are run-of-river structures on the Congo River rather than storage reservoirs. The Congo River's extraordinary discharge stability (~41,000 m³/s mean annual flow, world's second-largest by volume) means these facilities have negligible reservoir pools, making the concept of 'storage volume' largely inapplicable and reducing the comparability with reservoir-centric RTI dimensions. The Grand Inga project (~44,000 MW planned capacity) remains unbuilt as of 2026. Second, institutional capacity for hydrological data publication is critically underdeveloped. SNEL, the national electricity operator, publishes only static installed-capacity figures on its French-only website with no API, no machine-readable data, and no historical archive. METTELSAT (the national hydrometeorological agency) received World Bank support to install 38 monitoring stations from 2016 onward, but has no public data portal or downloadable time series. CICOS, the multilateral Congo Basin commission, is developing a Système d'Information Hydrologique but has not yet made data publicly accessible. Published analyses of Congo River hydrology rely almost entirely on third-party datasets: GRDC discharge records (through 2010), GRACE satellite gravity anomalies, and academic remote-sensing products. Third, governance and transparency challenges are systemic. World Bank assessments have flagged SNEL's lack of annual report publication and insufficient corporate governance as barriers to donor confidence. Specific energy supply agreements and generation contracts are not disclosed publicly. REGIDESO (the water distribution utility) issued its first meaningful financial transparency disclosure only in June 2025 — covering distribution volumes, not dam storage. The combination of run-of-river infrastructure, absent data infrastructure, and governance deficits produces a composite RTI score near the floor.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-09-15 · Methodology v1.3.0