Uhuru orders cancellation of Sh22.2b Kimwarer dam project
President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered immediate cancelation of the Kimwarer dam project which was found to be technically and financially not feasible by a Technical Committee formed to look into its viability.
In a report presented to the President on Wednesday, the committee established that no current reliable feasibility study had been conducted on the dam project.
The only feasibility study carried out on a similar project 28 years ago had revealed a geological fault across the 800 acre project area, which would have negative structural effects on the proposed dam.
The Technical Committee also established that the project area is settled and would require compensation of displaced residents.
The committee also found out that water supply mechanism would involve pumping, an aspect the Technical Committee found to be unsustainable in terms of operations and maintenance costs.
Further, the Technical Committee established that the pumping would make the project financially unsustainable in the long run.
However, after a detailed technical review, the Technical Committee was satisfied that the Arror Multipurpose dam project is economically viable but noted that it was overpriced.
The committee recommended to the President a cost rationalisation plan that will ensure the project is implemented cost effectively without affecting its performance and out put.
As part of the cost rationalization plan, the Technical Committee has prepared a new Bills of Quantities (BQ) for a modified dam with its height scaled down to 60 metres from the original design height of 96 metres which was found to be unviable.
The optimized dam will be technically viable since it will only require about 250 acres of land and cost KShs 15.4 billion with power and Shs 13.1 billion without power. The dam was previously estimated to cost KShs 28.3 billion.
