Environmentalists, too, had asked the government to shelve the project, whose construction will be done at the heart of Selous Game Reserve, which is on the list of the Unesco’s World Heritage site.
In June, while hosting a delegation from Ethiopia, President John Magufuli said the project would go on as planned.
The World Bank wants plans for the construction of the 2,100MW Stigler Gorge hydropower project suspended, saying the plant would result in severe water shortages.
Environmentalists, too, had asked the government to shelve the project, whose construction will be done at the heart of Selous Game Reserve, which is on the list of the Unesco’s World Heritage site.
However, the government has defended its decision to build the project in Rufiji Basin, one of the country’s largest nine freshwater basins, saying that it will provide a permanent solution to the country’s persistent power woes.
The government has already announced the tender for the construction of the project on August 30.
In June, while hosting a delegation from Ethiopia, President John Magufuli said the project would go on as planned.
“I’m quite aware of impediments that will emerge in the course of executing this project ... This project will cover 1,350 square kilometres, only three per cent of the Selous Game Reserve’s 45,000 square kilometers,” a state house statement quoted him as saying.
But the World Bank, in its country economic update dubbed “Managing water wisely: The urgent need to improve water resources management in Tanzania,” says that despite the country having the potential to increase its hydropower production but existing hydropower system is underperforming due to inadequate water.
The report further says that the demand for water in some of the areas where the government is planning construct hydropower facilities such as Rufiji, Nyasa, Rukwa and Lake Victoria basins already exceeded supply.
“Depending on whether the planned hydropower projects are upstream or downstream of the other major users, this may challenge the economic viability of some of these planned projects unless careful well- planned water management system is implemented,” the report says.
The government hasn’t disclosed the amount it has set aside for the the project but Brazil’s Odebrecht, which signed an MoU with the Rufiji River Basin Authority (Rubada) in July 2012 for the development of the project, estimated that it would cost $3.6 billion.
