Kenya is set to construct 700MW High Grand Falls Dam, Africa’s second largest dam at a cost of US $2 billion

ruby orimba

October 12, 2018 12:37 PM

The dam is set to produce 700MW of hydropower and facilitate irrigation in more than 250,000ha of land in Kitui, Garissa and Tana River counties.

___8969955___2018___10___12___11___1200px-Construction_of_Bui_Dam-e1467725905778

High Grand Falls Dam is one of the largest undertaking by the government after the Standard Gauge Railway project.
The dam is set to produce 700MW of hydropower and facilitate irrigation in more than 250,000ha of land in Kitui, Garissa and Tana River counties.

After months of delays, Kenya is finally set to construct High Grand Falls Dam, Africa’s second largest dam at a cost of US $2bn.

This follows a resolution of a procurement dispute which had threatened to delay the multi-million project.

ece-auto-gen

Irrigation Principal Secretary Fred Segor, Public Procurement Review Board (PPRB) — the state agency that handles disputes arising from government tendering — upheld an earlier ruling that the British firm that won the multibillion contract be allowed to undertake the project.

“The benefit to the region is enormous. Because first, it is going to form a large man-made lake, where it will be easy introducing fishing and tourism activities to the communities around it,” said Prof Fred Segor.

The dispute over tender number NIB/T/018/2016-2017 arose on May 29 when NIB cancelled the tender after it emerged that only GBM Consortium had met the preliminary conditions set out in the request for proposals, including a mandatory site visit.

Also read: Here are top five largest dams in Africa

ece-auto-gen

The dam is set to produce 700MW of hydropower and facilitate irrigation in more than 250,000ha of land in Kitui, Garissa and Tana River counties. The dam will also address the perennial flooding at Kenya’s Coast region while also serving 1.5 million people living downstream.

ece-auto-gen

High Grand Falls Dam will hold more than 5.6 billion cubic metres of water with construction expected to take six years.

The dam is part of the Sh1.5 trillion Lamu Port and Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (Lapsset) projects and will be built downstream the Seven Folks dams along River Tana.

ruby orimba