Water and Sanitation PS Julius Korir has disclosed that official commissioning of the first phase of Thwake Multipurpose Dam will be conducted in December this year.
Speaking during a site inspection and appraisal tour on implementation of the dam’s civil works and other related activities, Korir said that he was contented with the progress, noting that President Dr. William Ruto is expected to commission the multi-billion water reservoir by the end of this year.
“As a Ministry, we gave a commitment to the Head of State that the Embankment section of the dam will be completed by May. So far I am extremely satisfied that we are even ahead of schedule because the section will be completed in the next few days,” he said of the facility, which currently stands at 92 per cent completion.
Consequently, the PS noted that the dam’s critical paths have progressed well with the embankment expected to be completed in the next 20 days, before the Contractor allows it to settle and start working on the bridge and the electromechanical area.
During the tour at dam Friday, Korir assured the contractor that the government was committed to providing funds to ensure completion of the dam within the stipulated period.
Speaking during the same tour, Water Secretary Eng. Samwel Alima, who is also the Project Engineer, reiterated the government’s commitment to logical finalization of the mega dam that had so far recorded remarkable progress.
On his part, Makueni County Commissioner Henry Wafula urged the contractor to hasten works and ensure the project is completed as scheduled.
The Government of Kenya through the State Department for Water and Sanitation, with funding from African Development Bank (AfDB) is implementing Thwake Multipurpose Water Development Program Phase 1.
This is a flagship program under Vision 2030 of the Government of Kenya, whose overall objective is to fulfill the long-term country’s development ambition in the areas of water, energy and agriculture and a key project under the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
It is envisaged that upon completion, the project will provide the much needed regulation of flows on River Athi downstream, aimed at effecting both flood control and drought mitigation measures.
The program, under which the project is being implemented has four phases namely construction of an 80.5 m high multi-purpose dam with a storage capacity of 688 million cubic meters of water and associated preliminary works, located one kilometer downstream of the confluence of Thwake and Athi Rivers.
This will also involve a concrete-faced embankment dam covering an area of 9,217 acres.
The second phase comprises development of hydropower generating system, with an installed capacity of approximately 20 Megawatt.
The third phase will be development of Water Supply, Sanitation and Waste Water Infrastructure to supply estimated at 150,000 m3/day of treated water to approximately 1.3 million people drawn from the rural areas of Kitui and Makueni Counties and Konza Techno City in Machakos County.
This will then see development of an Irrigation Scheme to ultimately irrigate 40,000 hectares (approximately 100,000 acres) of land in the country’s Lower Eastern region.
Meanwhile, the contractor’s scope of works entails construction and installation of concrete faced rock fill dam including main and emergency spillway, low level outlet, intake tower, access roads, hydro mechanical plant, electrical and mechanical plant and an access road over the dam connecting Kitui and Makueni counties.
By Patrick Nyakundi
