What happened to the Nandi - Kano Plain Ksh 50 billion Dam Project?

Kano Plains from Nandi Hills...

It is now over a year since the government abandoned a Sh50 billion dam project in Nandi county following opposition by environmentalists and some residents. Experts, including engineers and surveyors who were working on the plan for the Nandi Multi-Purpose Dam, left the site on orders of the government. The project was put on hold in June 2010 after the environmentalists, MPs and residents opposed destruction of more than 5,000 acres of forestland to create space for the project, which was to be financed by the government and donors.

Nandi Dam...

The Lake Basin Development Authority wrote to the government ministries requesting to have a meeting where plans for the project would be reviewed but since then, it has not received any response from the government. One of the engineers said that that they were told to stop everything and go back to their offices because it was difficult to implement the project amid controversy.

LBDA officials had made several visits to the site but they failed in its efforts to initiate dialogue with the communities to allow the project to proceed. LBDA managing director Peter Kabok had complained that the resistance from the environmentalists and communities affected the implementation of the project. Friends of Nandi Environment, which is one of the key groups opposed to the project, had stuck to its ground that it would not allow forests to be cleared to create space for the dam. FONE chairman, David Chumo said that the project had stalled and they did not have any updates from the government or LBDA.

Kano Plains from a different angle...

More than 1,000 hectares of forests were to be cleared for the project. LBDA had promised to plant 3,000 hectares of forests in return. The dam was expected to produce 50 megawatts of electricity and part of the water was to be channelled through an underground tunnel to irrigate more than 170,000 hectares of land in Kano Plains.

Part of the water was also to be supplied to homes in six districts within the Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western regions. Chumo said environmental issues were sensitive and touched on lives of people, livestock and wildlife and that they would not accept to be duped into accepting the project without clear measures against environmental destruction.

Adapted from the Star