China Ghezouba Company, the project contractors developing the Thwake Dam project on the border of Kitui and Makueni in Kenya has won a rare public compliment from its co-financier, the African Development Bank (AfDB).
AfDB East Africa executive director Amos Cheptoo announced that the bank which is partly financing the project, described the progress as tremendous, promising to inject more funds into the development.
“As a bank we are impressed with the ongoing work at the dam. Once the dam construction is completed in June 2022, the bank will work with the government to ensure faster acceleration of the remaining three phases,” said Mr Cheptoo.
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Phases of construction
The dam, located at the confluence of river Thwake and Athi River, is a Vision 2030 flagship. China Ghezouba Company, has already undertaken major works on site, including establishing two giant tunnels to divert Athi River flow for excavation works at the river bed.
The project is being carried out in phases. The first one involves involves construction of an 80.5m high multi-purpose dam (688 million cubic meter storage capacity) and associated preliminary works needed to enable implementation of other three phases.
Phase Two of the work will involve construction of hydropower and substation development expected to generate at least 20MW of installed capacity. The third phase will see development of water supply system to treat and distribute up to 150,000 cubic metres of treated water per day to millions of rural inhabitants of three counties and inhabitants of Konza TechnoCity and its environs. The last stage of the project will see development of irrigation works for up to 40,075 hectares of land (approximately 100,000 acres of land).
Thwake Dam will provide water for domestic, irrigation, hydropower as well as industrial activities in the beneficiary counties. It will mainly serve Makueni County as well as certain parts of Kitui County.