Kenya’s ambitious plans to build Africa’s second largest freshwater dam are inching closer to reality after the government resolved a procurement dispute which threatened to delay the project.
The High Grand Falls Dam, estimated to cost a whopping Sh200 billion, is one of the largest undertakings by the government after the Standard Gauge Railway project and is among President Uhuru Kenyatta’s legacy projects.
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British firm to build Kenya’s largest water reservoir
London-based GBM Engineering Consortium has won a lucrative tender to fund, design, build, own, operate, and transfer a Sh200 billion dam on River Tana in eastern Kenya.
This follows a decision by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPRB), a state agency that resolves tender disputes, to uphold the award of the contract to the firm.
GBM Engineering Consortium won the contract in a tendering process featuring seven companies (five of them Chinese), but the National Irrigation Board declined to accept its win.
The PPRB heard the matter and determined the dispute in favour of GBM on July 4, and directed the National Irrigation Board (NIB) to conclude the tendering process within 30 days.
NIB disregarded the ruling and cancelled the tender.
The PPRB has now ruled that the government had no legal basis to cancel the tender or delay its award to the British firm.
Dubbed the High Grand Falls Dam, the dam that straddles Kitui and Tharaka Nithi, is part of the Lamu Port and South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) Corridor projects.
The High Grand Falls Dam, which was conceived in 2009, covers 165 square kilometres and will hold 5.6 billion cubic metres of water that will nourish the Lamu port and resort city while adding nearly 700MW to the national power grid.
“It will be the largest water storage facility in the country with a holding capacity of 5.6 billion cubic metres,” says Water Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui.
Phase one of the dam project is expected to be operational by 2031 with a capacity of 495MW and will cost Sh200 billion, according to latest government records.
The second phase with a capacity of 198MW will come in a year later – bringing the total capacity to 693MW.
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Work to start on High Grand Falls Dam
Kenya will not be required to finance the dam project as the contractor will build and operate the dam for 20 years, to recoup its investment, before handing it over to the government.
On completion, the High Grand Falls Dam will be Africa’s second largest dam after the 5,250-square kilometre Aswan High Dam in Egypt on River Nile.
The High Grand Falls Dam is part of an ambitious endeavour to build 1,000 water reservoirs across the country in a bid to revolutionise irrigation-based agriculture.
Other proposed dams include Twake Dam in Makueni, which will nourish Konza City, Badasa Dam (Marsabit), Hare Dam (Nyando), Sio Dam (West Pokot) and Mwache Dam in Kwale.
Months later, Kenya decided to tender the project afresh under the build-operate-transfer model that does not require it to procure any funding for the project.
British firm to build Kenya’s largest water reservoir