Repair on Nalubaale Dam starts, traffic diverted for five months

NALUBAALE DAM | REPAIR | TRAFFIC

Repairs on the Nalubaale power plant, below the old Nile bridge, have started, resulting into a number of new traffic flow measures for pedestrians and motorists.

According to ESKOM, the contractor, the refurbishment works on Nalubaale will last five months.

“The main dam structure refurbishment works are steadily going on at Nalubaale power plant, below the old Nile bridge. Traffic flow measures for motorists and pedestrians are in place to ensure safe execution of the works.

The project is intended to cure the leakages on the main dam, where the grout curtain has deteriorated over the years, observed by the water seepages on the downstream side of the dam structure. Civil structures are the foundation of all activity in a hydropower plant, thus the need to be taken care of effectively,” Emmanuel Njuki, the Eskom Uganda spokesperson, said.

“The old Nile bridge will be partly closed off from March 2 to August 30, 2021 to ensure safety of the public and the safe execution of the ongoing works on the Nalubaale power plant,” he added.

Measures have been put in place to ensure that movement on the old Nile bridge road is restricted to cyclists and pedestrians, he said.

“All vehicles will now use the new bridge,” he added.

Why now 

The repairs come at a time when the Government has embarked on water spilling to save Nalubaale and Kiira hydropower dams from the rising water level of Lake Victoria.

According to officials from Eskom, the spilling will be done at 2,200 cubic meters per second, making it very difficult for 25% of the surrounding population to conduct fishing and other businesses.

The spilling exercise has been conducted to tame the rising Lake Victoria water levels, which experts say are now at 13.19 meters.

Lake Victoria has Africa’s largest inland fishery, which accounts for about one million fish annually.

Other activities on the lake include beach camping, water rafting, drifting, bungee jumping and skiing, all of which attract tourists and revellers, especially during holiday periods such as Easter.

“The lake water level has been rising and it is expected to peak during the main rainy season between March and May. We are spilling 2200 cubic meters per second,” the statement noted.

Last year in April, a floating island speeding near Nalubaale dam caused a stir following  expert alerts that it had potential to block inlet screens at the dam in Jinja and also affect the power generation capacity.

To clear the floating island, the country suffered power blackouts as a combined team of engineers from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and Eskom worked around the clock to tame the threatening island.