Govt acquires technology to avert floods at Isimba, Karuma

The government through the Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) has acquired technology that forecasts water flow on River Nile and Lake Victoria, hence preventing flooding on hydropower dams.
The technology dubbed ‘Operation Decision Support System for Hydropower (ODSS-HP)’ was developed by Agence Française de Développement (AFD), a French development agency, with funding from European Union.

Mr Charles Mwase, the UEGCL engineer-in-charge of production planning and water safety, said the technology is a virtual or online tool that helps to optimise hydropower on Karuma, Kiira, Isimba, and Nalubaale power stations.
He explained that it is a decision support system that supports power generation by providing seasonal forecasting of water flow patterns on River Nile and Lake Victoria where the power stations are based.
This, he said, enables them to plan for water shortages, which might lead to low power production as well as overflows during the rainy season.

“If we remember in 2020, and 2021, that’s that period where we had high flows from Lake Victoria then we had flooding around Lake Victoria shores, and Victoria. So this was also part of the things that initiated this project. Because, as UEGCL, we felt we need to better manage our water resources, because we have one main water resource, which is Lake Victoria,” Mr Mwase told journalists during a tour of the Isimba Hydropower Dam on Wednesday.

“Optimising hydropower is very key for us, especially given that we are working on the same river. So, we obtained funds from EU to facilitate this project. And the purpose was to develop a decision support system with the aim of optimising hydropower generation, and at the same time looking out for flood risk and dam safety risk,” he said.
He said the online tool was developed by a consortium of two French companies. 
The UEGCL engineer further revealed that the system looks at water flows and hydropower optimisation.

“So it forecasts up to a period of nine months. It takes into consideration the hydrology, that it’s rainfall, evaporation, and other hydrological parameters around Lake Victoria. So from the lake level, we are able to know the forecasted discharge or river flow,” he said.
Mr Mwase said UEGCL has a fully-fledged IT department whose staff have been trained on how to use the technology.