The Memve’ele hydroelectric dam is set to be fully operational by December this year. This is according to the Ministry of Water and Energy (Minee).
Construction of the dam began in 2013 and was expected to be completed by 2017. However, the project experienced delays that was brought about with of a 30 km transport line, which separates the site of the dam from the city of Yaoundé.
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Memve’ele hydroelectric dam
The project is jointly financed by Eximbank China through US $531.6m loan solely for the construction of the dam and US $190m from the African Development Bank for the putting in place of other components of the project. The rest of funds; US $110m was made available by the government of Cameroon. The implementing agency for the project is Sinohydro Corporation Limited.
Located in Nyabizan on the Ntem River in the South region, 300 km from Yaounde,The Memve’ele Hydroelectric power plant is one of the biggest in Cameroon with a capacity of 211MW of electricity. The Earth fill dam is 20 meters high having a reservoir of 19 million m3 of water. Water from the reservoir is channelled through the canal to the power house for the production of energy.
Among other features of the dam include; headrace channel, intake tower, secondary dam, living camp for contractors, homogeneous earth dam, power house, tail race tunnel, and tail race outlet.
The Memve’ele Hydroelectric power plant is expected to provide sufficient energy to resolve the electricity deficit in the southern part of Cameroon. According to World Bank estimates, 62% of Cameroonians are without electricity. The installed capacity in Cameroon would be 1,400 MW, compared to a demand of around 2000 MW each year.
