The President of the United Republic of Tanzania, His Excellency John Pombe Joseph Magufuli and Dr. Moustafa Madbouli, the Egyptian Prime Minister and the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities on behalf of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi witnessed the signing ceremony of the designing and construction of Rufiji's Dam and Power Plant which owned by the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy. The contract awarded to the joint ventures between the Arab Contractors Company and Elsewedy Electric Company with a total value of 2.9 billion US$.
The attendees from the Egyptian side were Dr. Mohammed Shaker – the Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Dr. Mohammed Abdel Aaty – Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Major Gen. Kamel EL Wazir – Head of the Engineering Authority for the Armed Forces, Eng. Mohsen Salah – the Chairman and CEO of the Arab Contractors Company, Eng. Ahmed El Sewedy – the Chairman and CEO of Elsewedy Electric Company, number of the officials, Industrialists and investors, Eng. Sayed Farouk – the Senior Vice President of the Arab Contractors Company, Dr. Mohammed Youssef and Dr. Onsy Elbeshouty - the AC Board Members, Eng. Ibrahim Mabrouk – Head of Africa Sector and Mr. Emad Ebeid – Head of the Financial Sector of Africa Sector. From the Tanzania side there was the Vice President of Tanzania, the Prime Minister and a number of ministers and officials.
The signing ceremony started by the National Anthem of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the United Republic of Tanzania. The President of the United Republic of Tanzania, John Magufuli begun his speech that the Christ fled and sought refuge in Egypt from our enemies, nowadays when we wanted to develop and construct Rufiji's Dam we aimed to Egypt for helping us in this project for our great trust in the abilities and greatness of the Egyptians. The Tanzanian President thanked and greeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi for his support to the Tanzanian people. He said that President El Sisi stated that this project is his own and the Egyptians are ready for it. The Tanzanian President asked the Arab Contractors Company to accomplish this project before its scheduled completion period which is 3 years. He added that the Egyptians love their country and when they want something they do it. Then, he congratulated the Tanzania people and the Arab Contractors Company on this project. He confirmed that this project will generate electricity for Tanzania for the coming 60 years.
Prime Minister Dr. Moustafa Madbouli said that he is glad to witness signing ceremony of the construction of Rufiji Hydropower Project which as an evidence of Egypt's commitment to support the development efforts in Tanzania; we are hoping that this project will be a gate to discover new horizon of cooperation between the two countries. He added that we are pleased with the strong tie bilateral relation between Egypt and Tanzania after last year visit of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to Dar es Salam in August 2017. He said that we are looking forward to further building on these important achievements to push the bilateral relations in all fields. Dr. Madbouli said that during the last few years, many Egyptian companies have started working in Tanzania, working side by side with Tanzanian brothers in projects in the projects which support development and industrial efforts in Tanzania. The past few months witnessed the arrival of many Egyptian delegations to Tanzania which considered the best evidence of the current momentum in our bilateral relationship. Besides, there are many important joint ventures projects ongoing between the two countries in different fields. However, we believe that there are still other capabilities could be used to sustain the cooperation between the two countries. We would like to emphasize on Egypt's commitment to working side by side with our brothers in Tanzania to maximize the benefits from this potentials.
The Prime Minister pointed out that in the framework of the Egyptian preparations for the presidency of the African Union in 2019, we look forward to continuing cooperation and coordination with Tanzania on issues with common concern in the light of Egypt's preparation and commitment to sustain the African cooperation and its keenness to achieve results during its presidency. These results should be stemming from the actual needs of the African countries and peoples. He stated that the Egyptian government with its different political and economic institutions is doing its best to strengthen its bilateral relationship with Tanzania. He said long live Egypt … Long live Tanzania … Long live Africa. The President of Zambia praised the Egyptian achievements during the era of President El Sisi; he added that we are looking forward to cooperation and integration with Egypt. In his speech, Sheikh Abu Bakr Bin Zubair - the Mufti of Tanzania thanked Egypt and the Egyptians for their cooperation with Tanzania in the construction of the Rufiji dam.
Eng. Mohsen Salah – the Chairman and CEO of the Arab Contractors Company stated that the designing and construction of Rufiji's Dam and Power Plant which will executed by the joint ventures between the Arab Contractors Company and Elsewedy Electric Company for the beneficiary which is the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy under the supervision of the Engineering Authority for the Armed Forces aiming at the electricity generation with a capacity of 2115 megawatts. The project objective is to provide electricity, control the water drainage through the whole year including the floods durations consequently it will provide the water requirements in Tanzania. The project execution period is 42 months includes 6 months mobilization period. Eng. Mohsen Salah declared that the project includes the construction of a main concrete dam for the reservation of the required water for the hydropower from the power plant. The project scope of works is including the concrete works for the main dam with a total length 1025m at the top with a height 130m besides the construction of 4 other dams for water reservation with a varied lengths of 1.4km-7.9km-4.6km-2.6km with maximum lengths 21.3m-14m-12.4m-5.5m respectively. The total amount of the expected water reservation is 33 billion m3 in addition to these there is the construction of the hydropower plant with a capacity not less than 2115 megawatts; substation 400kv, transmission lines 400kv for the nearest point of the main plant.
Eng. Ibrahim Mabrouk added that the civil works for the Arab Contractors Company includes the followings: the construction of permanent roads linked the site with the current roads network with a total length 21km, temporal for the internal services linking all the permanent structures for 59km length, the construction of a RCC (roller compacted concrete) gravity dam on Rufiji's river, a power plant, administrative buildings, control and monitoring, workshops, stores, power station 400kv includes the power transmission lines, 4 saddle dams with varied lengths for the accumulation and reservation of water, a diversion tunnel for water with a length of 660m in addition to temporal dams and a spillway in the middle of the main dam with 7 gates, emergency spillway on the First saddle dam without gates and a concrete permanent bridge on Rufiji's river. In addition to these, there is an integrated residential complex on 19000m consisting of housing units, playgrounds, permanent offices with furniture. Besides, residential complex, permanent offices besides the utilities, lighting works, water, water treatment works. It is a noteworthy that the excavation works reached 4 million m3, the filling works is about 7.5 million m3, concrete works 2.6 million m3 and reinforced iron 64000 tons. The electromechanical works for the power plant includes the followings: electricity generation plant 2115 megawatts - 9 vertical Francis hydro turbines each of 235 megawatt – 9 Butterfly Valves for the entries – 9 vertical axis turbines – cooling systems for water and wastewater – ventilation systems – air condition – firefighting – telecommunication – safety, monitoring and controlling equipment – 3 electricity generators for the electricity generation plant – the spillway gates in the main dam – auxiliaries works.