Rufiji Dam in Tanzania | constguide.com

Tanzania Dam from idea to establish

The idea started with building a small dam to protect against floods and maintain irrigation infrastructure. This idea was put forward in 1940, and the preparation of the study for the project began. But in 1961, after about twenty years had passed, it published a study on the area containing the idea of ​​constructing the current Rufiji Dam.. with the aim of generating electric power and providing water for drinking and irrigation, in addition to the industrial renaissance resulting from the generation of electric power and the project exceeded the initial goal of protection from Flood hazards to a new hydroelectric project

Beginning in 1961 with President Nyerere assuming power, after the independence of Tanzania. The president started to seek financing for the construction of the dam, due to his belief that the economic growth opportunities for Tanzania are the Rufiji Dam project, where cheap hydroelectric power becomes the reason for the country to emerge from the economic crisis then. However, the World Bank refused to finance the project for several reasons, the most important of which are: -

• Environmental concerns about the nature of the dam
• There is no increased necessity for electricity consumption in Tanzania, so there is no need to build a dam.
• 1982 - UNESCO declared the dam area a natural reserve

With the succession of the various ministries in Tanzania, the search for funding for the dam has remained as the solution and the way for the renaissance in the country. Many international companies began negotiating to build the dam, the most prominent of which was a Brazilian company that continued in the negotiation stage from 2009 to 2017, and then negotiations and talk about the dam stopped until 2017 with the President Magufuli's government announcing that 

"The project will be built and financed with National money, no external financing."

Technical specifications of Rufiji Dam

• A concrete dam, 134 meters high
• 9 turbines with a capacity of 235 megawatts
• A capacity to generate electricity of 2,115 megawatts.
• Establishing permanent roads to connect the project with a length of 21 km
• Construction of temporary roads to connect the project with a length of 59 km.
• Digging a 6.6 km long tunnel to divert the river's water.
• Building an integrated residential complex on an area of ​​19 thousand square meters
• 4 subsidiary dams and a permanent concrete bridge on Rufiji River
• Construction of an emergency spillway on the first branch dam without gates
• Constructing a spillway in the middle of the main dam, consisting of 7 sector gates
• Establishing a 400 kV substation, with electrical transmission lines

It is expected that the water stored in the lake for the project will reach about 33 billion cubic meters, at a cost of 2.9 billion dollars.

The importance of Rufiji Dam to Tanzania

It is a national project that the Tanzanian state has not abandoned during the past decades, and its governments to try to find a way out of the economic crisis and achieve economic growth. And it has many benefits, most notably

• Control of periods of drought and seasonal floods
• Permanent water availability for agricultural and drinking purposes throughout the year.
• Generating the electricity that Tanzania needs for citizens' consumption, with a capacity of 17 million households.
• Industrial transformation and strengthening of the Tanzanian economy in the medium and long term
• Raise the level of income and livelihood of citizens
• Providing job opportunities for citizens during the construction period, as the current number of workers working in the dam ranges from 5,233 workers, of whom 526 are Egyptians, 3,974 Tanzanian workers, and 733 foreign workers from other countries.
• The dam protects the environment because citizens use clean renewable energy such as electricity instead of unfairly cutting forests and using their wood to obtain energy now.