On 21 November 2018, the African Development Bank’s Board of Directors approved two loans totaling Ksh 27.5 billion to help finish construction of Thwake dam, a major water project for Makueni County and nearby areas, including Konza Technopolis.
The financing package was requested by the Kenyan government and is split into Ksh 22.5 billion from the Bank and Ksh 5 billion from the Africa Growing Together Fund. It comes after an earlier Ksh 8.8 billion loan approved in 2013 to begin the Thwake Multi-Purpose Development Programme, which was designed to deliver drinking water, hydropower and irrigation.
According to the bank, the completed dam will stand 80.5 metres high and hold 681 million cubic metres of water. Of that capacity, 625 million cubic metres is expected to support electricity generation and downstream irrigation, while 22 million cubic metres will serve upstream irrigation and 34 million cubic metres will be reserved for human use.
The first phase of the project was expected to be completed in December 2022. After that, the programme was to move into three further stages: water treatment works for household supply, hydroelectric power production and irrigation covering 40,000 hectares.
The bank said the project is expected to benefit about 1.3 million people in the Lower Eastern Region. It also said Thwake will be 10 times the size of Ndakaini dam and the largest in East Africa.
China Gezhouba Construction Group Corporation is handling the construction.
Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu, speaking after the launch last year, said the dam would be “a game changer” in the region.
The bank said its Kenya portfolio stood at Ksh 373 billion, or €3.2 billion, across 33 operations, with water and sanitation making up about 22 percent of the public sector portfolio value.
