Hoima dam ready by June

Some of the equipment at Wambabya River where the dam is being constructed. Photo by Francis Mugerwa

HydroMax Ltd, a firm that was contracted by government to construct a power dam in Hoima District, plans to finalise the project this year, officials have said.

The company engineers told a team of officials from the Ministry of Energy headed by the Energy Minister, Ms Irene Muloni, this week that they expect to finalise the project by June.

“We are impressed by the work so far done and we pray that it is completed earliest,” Ms Muloni told Daily Monitor on Tuesday shortly after visiting Wambabya River where the dam is being constructed.

HydroMax Ltd officials said the project has three turbines which will produce nine mega watts of power when completed.

National power
The hydro power will then be wired to Kinubi Power Station in Hoima town where it will be connected to the national grid.

Engineers are currently working on the plane stock through which water will be channelled downstream where turbines will generate power from the water.

The estimated cost for the dam and power plant is approximately $30 million (about Shs74b).
The dam, power plant and 44 kilometres of high voltage transmission line from the power house to a substation in Hoima, are all being constructed by HydroMax, a private energy investor.

The project site manager, Mr Reddy Vijaykumar, said the river had already been channelled to the spillway, which is the final stage in the construction of the dam.

Ms Muloni and a team of technocrats also visited various oil sites in Buliisa District, which included Ngege, Kasemene, Ngara and Kigogole.

On oil
Oil explorers have discovered commercially viable oil deposits in the Albertine graben of more than 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, according to the Energy ministry sources.

By March last year, oil explorers had drilled 55 oil wells in the Albertine graben out of which only four have been unsuccessful. Ms Muloni said she is impressed by the infrastructural developments in Bunyoro, especially for roads leading to oil sites.

“That infrastructure will create avenues for business to thrive. Hoima is already having vibrant businesses due to opportunities that have come with oil,” she said.

The minister urged the people of Bunyoro to work with government to make the oil industry a success.