A Senate committee now wants the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum to fast-track the construction of the High Grand Falls Dam on the Tana River to contain flooding downstream.
The Senate Standing Committee on Energy noted that the new dam would be a permanent solution to perennial flooding currently being witnessed in Garissa, Tana River and Lamu.
The chair of the committee, Wahome Wamatinga noted that the Seven Forks dams used by KenGen to generate electricity are currently overflowing.
The five dams (Masinga, Kamburu, Gitaru, Kindaruma and Kiambere) were constructed to generate a total of 599 MW of electricity in 20 years from 1968 to 1988
“It is worth noting that 34 years down the line no additional dam has been constructed despite increased human activities like irrigation, deforestation and increased population. From 1989 to the present the population of Kenya has increased from 21 million to over 50 million. This has led to settlement along the river bank in the lower basin,” Wamatinga said.
In a statement, Wamatinga noted that the government in September 2023, signed a Public Private Partnership agreement with a UK firm for the construction of the High Grand Falls Dam.
The dam will cost Sh425 billion to construct and when complete it will hold 5.7 billion cubic metres of water and generate 700MW of electricity.
“The construction of this dam will not only alleviate untold suffering caused by floods due to flood control, it will also inject about 700 MW of cheap electricity into the grid. This will be a double victory for the people of Kenya and communities living downstream of River Tana,” Wamatinga added.
He noted current rains have caused water level to rise to the spillway levels leading to the discharge of over 1,300, 0000 litres of water per second back to River Tana.
“A consequence, of all this water flows downstream causing flooding witnessed in Garissa, Tana River, and Lamu,” he said.
He said the committee conducted a damage assessment inspection and ascertained that indeed massive destruction in the form of flooding of farms, settlements and washing away of vital infrastructure caused by the river breaking its banks.
He said a stop-gap measure would be to raise the wall of Masinga Dam by one meter to delay the overflowing of the water downstream.
“However, a permanent solution would be to construct a bigger dam downstream,” he added.
