Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Power project will soon foresee commissioning as tests of this plant which is situated on the Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi border shall be finished in the course of this month According to the Minister o Infrastructure of Rwanda, Mr Jimmy Gasore, stated that they will be ready to utilize the electricity generated from the project by the end of the year. This was stated in a meeting held by the ministers from the tree countries of Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Currently, the Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Power project is 99.7% complete and all the civil works of the project have already been completed. The plant is set to generate electricity from River Kagera which is among the sources of water of the Great Nile. Straddling a distance of 600 kilometers the borders of Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, the project has been stated to possess an annual discharge of 540 cubic meters per second.
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Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Power Project Cost and Capacity
The project costed a total of $347 million and is among the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) investment programs that were set. The very crucial constructions of this project are located at the Tanzania-Rwanda border, having based the switch yard located on the Rwandan side. The transmission lines of electricity will be within a distance of 94 kilometers from Rusumo to Nyakanazi in Tanzania, 161 kilometers and 194 kilometers to Rwanda and Burundi respectively. The Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Power project has a potential of generating a total capacity of 80 Megawatts and will be distributed evenly between the three countries, each country getting a total of 26.6 Megawatts to its national grid.
The Nile Basin Initiative was made effective in the year 1999 by the tree states of Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania which seek to establish economic projects for the generated shared benefits. Currently, the project is almost complete as it is being finalized. The secretary general of NBI, Matemu, recently paid a visit to the project alongside permanent secretaries from the three countries involved.
