Jezioro Kiwu w Rwandzie - Redux

Portrait of Jean Martin, maintenance technician for KivuWatt's unique floating platform, a compact tangle of pipes and buoys as high as a multi-storey building moored in the Rwandan part of Kivu, Rwanda, on November 20, 2023. KivuWatt saw an opportunity to tap Lake Kivu’s abundant gases for energy generation and now produces around 30 percent of the annual electricity consumed in the East African nation. Thousands of years of volcanic activity has caused a massive accumulation of methane and carbon dioxide to dissolve in the depths of Kivu -- enough to prove monumentally destructive in the rare event they were released. The breathtaking beauty of Lake Kivu, resting between the volcanoes and steep hills of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, is exceeded only by its mercurial temperament. A clear sunny day can turn to a tropical downpour in minutes, before the sun beats down again. The lake’s still waters also hide another face: dissolved within are billions of cubic meters of flammable methane and more still of carbon dioxide, presenting both a source of power and a danger to hundreds of thousands of people living around the lake. The lake holds haunting memories from the 1994 genocide, but also offered a lifesaving escape to some. Its glassy surface is dotted with hundreds of islands, all of which have their own particularities and histories.