President Yoweri Museveni has commissioned Isimba dam in Kayunga district. Museveni switched on four turbines of the 183MWs dam amidst cheers from high profile dignitaries who accompanied him.
Construction of the dam took 47 months and cost US$ 566 million. 85% of the money was borrowed from Exim bank of China.
Museveni asked residents of Kayunga to tap into such projects to fight poverty in their homes.
He said the National Resistance Movement-NRM government has put in place the necessary infrastructure for people to fight poverty in their households.
Museveni appreciated the Chinese government for financing the project construction.
He described the Chinese government and its people as friends of Uganda and Africa in general.
He said the NRM government started by fighting insecurity, improved education, health and roads.
Musevni said government has now turned attention to electricity and railway.
“We have also constructed many roads and will continue to construct many more. But now our emphasis is on electricity. And very soon every part of the country will have electricity.
We will also re-establish the old train transport system and construct a new one. Train transport is more cost effective compared to road transport,” Museveni said during the commissioning ceremony.
The 183MW Isimba Hydro Power Project (HPP) is located 4km downstream of Simba Falls on the River Nile, approximately 50km downstream of the Source of the Nile.
The project site is about 21km from Kayunga town and about 65km from Jinja Town.
The Power Station will be installed with four vertical Kaplan turbine generator units with a capacity of 45.8MW per unit thereby providing a combined installed capacity of 183.2MW.