Construction works on Itare Dam in Nakuru County is set to resume. Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui made the announcement and said negotiations are underway to resume the project this year.
“I have been engaging the national government and President Uhuru Kenyatta has assured us the project will resume soon. The two governments are in close contact,โ said Governor Kinyanjui.
The dam, which was slated for completion by April 2021 has stalled since September 2018 when the contractor left the site citing financial reasons. The project was abandoned at 49% after Co-operative Muratoi Cementisti Di Ravenna (CMC Ravenna), which was supposed to complete the project by 2021, filed for bankruptcy.
Primary objective of the project
The works done includes dam foundation, treatment plant, outlet tunnel, pipeline โ leaving out almost 60% of the work. This could take another one and a half year for the new contractor to complete. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has been conducting investigations into alleged graft in the Sh 38billion Itare Dam project.
According to Governor Kinyanjui, the primary objective of the project is the provision of clean water for consumption and use by residents hence the urgent need to complete the project despite pending court cases. While acknowledging the dam has an array of challenges ranging from compensation, flawed procurement processes and numerous court cases, the Governor insisted that a new company can be given the green light to complete the project.
Once complete, the multi-billion dam project was to provide clean drinking water to about 800,000 residents of Nakuru County. The dam is expected to yield 100,000 cubic metres of water per day and the water was also slated for expansion of Lake Nakuru sewerage treatment plant.
