CAIRO – 7 October 2022: The Egyptian consortium of Arab Contractors and Elsewedy Electric companies finalized on Thursday the main body of Julius Nyerere dam in Tanzania, the Ministry of Housing announced.
The Egyptian consortium also started preparations for retaining water to fill the reservoir of the giant Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP), the ministry added in a statement on Friday.
Work to finalize the construction of the main body of the dam continued for 687 days, the ministry said.
The consortium is preparing to retain the water of Rufiji River behind the dam, the ministry said, noting that the process is estimated to take around two months as per the flood forecast this year.
Preparations include completing the installation and testing of water gates, which provides of the minimum water disposal to maintain the riverine environment around the dam and controls the discharge of excess water in cases of floods and emergency situations during operation.
This will be followed by the start of highly accurate engineering procedures to close the diversion tunnel to signal the beginning of filling the lake behind the dam on an area of about 158,000 square kilometers with an operating capacity of 32.7 billion cubic meters and a maximum capacity of 34 billion cubic meters, the ministry explained.
The main dam has reached a height of 190 meters above sea level on a base of about 20,000 square meters and a length of up to 1,033 meters at the top, Minister of Housing Assem El-Gazzar said.
In this way, the Egyptian consortium successfully completed pouring 1,000,450 cubic meters of Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) with daily rates of up to 8,000 cubic meters, the minister said.
Around 2,500 engineers and workers participated in the construction work at the main dam with a total of 22 million working hours, Gazzar added.
The JNHPP implemented by the Arab Contractors and Elsewedy Electric across the Rufiji River in eastern Tanzania, represents the largest national project in the sisterly African country.
The project costs $2.9 billion and consists of a dam and a station that will provide energy, control the floods of Rufiji River and preserve the environment.
The storage capacity of the dam's lake is 34 billion m3. It also includes a hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 2,115 megawatts.
In November, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi reiterated Egypt’s full support to the implementation of the Julius Nyerere dam project, saying it achieves the aspirations of the brotherly Tanzanian people for a better life.
In a press conference with his Tanzanian counterpart, Samia Hassan, in Cairo, Sisi said the dam project represents a model of Egypt’s support to the rights of the Nile Basin countries in achieving optimum use of water resources in a way that does not negatively affect the rights and resources of other countries.
“I affirm full support to the implementation of the Julius Nyerere dam project to ensure the best performance levels and construction standards so that the dam becomes a pioneering model and symbol of cooperation and friendship between Egypt, Tanzania and all sisterly African countries,” Sisi said.
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