Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi to Develop $6.4 Billion Power and Water Project

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The $6.4 billion Rusumo Falls hydropower project in central East Africa will enhance water and energy resources and boost the quality of life in the project area. Construction for the 90-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric power generation section of the project is estimated to cost about $4 billion. The balance of the funding will be used for the resettlement plan for local populations, environmental restoration, and the engineering and setting up of transmission lines.

The power transmission lines will connect the plant to the electricity grids of Burundi at Gitega, Rwanda at Shango, and Tanzania at Nyakanazi.

The World Bank has agreed to finance the project that is to be jointly developed by Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The power generation plant will be on the right bank of the Kagera River in Tanzania, while the river diversion channel and substation will be on the left bank in Rwanda.

The decision on the multi-purpose use of water and energy from the project was made in February 2012 at a meeting attended by the energy ministers of the three countries. The meeting came after Burundi and Rwanda complained that the hydropower project would have wide-ranging effects on their populations.

Construction of the power project is expected to start by mid-2013 and is scheduled to be commissioned in 2017-18.

The natural water falls at Rusumo provide an advantage for the project. The Kagera River will be dammed and a reservoir will be established upstream of the falls near the international bridge at the border between Rwanda and Tanzania. The reservoir will expand upstream of the dam to the west along ther Kagera River up to Lake Rweru. It will also stretch along the Ruvubu River to the south. Some banks of the Kagera and Ruvubu Rivers and Lake Rweru will be inundated in Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

The reservoir along the two rivers and around the lake will cover an area of 38,500 hectares of which about 15,000 hectares are currently under water. The additional, land surface which will be covered by water amounts to 23,500 hectares. The project land will be vacated by the inhabitants around 2017/18 before the dam is fully commissioned.

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