The idea of damming the Cunene River bordering on Angola in northern Namibia was suggested as far back as the era of German occupation prior to the First World War. Yet it was only in the late 1980s, motivated by forecasts about Namibia's increasing need for power, that NamPower (the public power utility) began to advocate the construction of a hydropower scheme in the Epupa area. Namibian independence combined with increasing political stability in Angola made the concept more feasible. The proposed Hydropower Scheme on the Lower Cunene River, as it is officially referred to or the Epupa Dam project as it is colloquially known (because of the Namibian government's insistence on a site at the Epupa Falls on the Cunene River), will be the first of its kind on Namibian soil. There is accordingly no prior national experience of large dams and indigenous peoples and the process has thus drawn on regional and international experience. Should the Epupa Dam be built on the Cunene River the consequences for the Himba pastoralists living in and around the inundation area would be severe. For this reason the Himba are unequivocably opposed to the construction of the Dam. This paper seeks to highlight the competing interests, which any such venture must inevitably, pit against one another - national development priorities and energy needs versus indigenous land and natural resource rights. An attempt is also made to sketch the Feasibility Study process and its findings.