KAMPALA: President Museveni has threatened to suspend the ongoing construction of the two hydropower dams of Karuma and Isimba because of shoddy work.
In a tough letter dated March 22, 2016, written to the Energy Minister Irene Muloni, President Museveni said the engineers constructing the two dams should be dismissed.
“If it is necessary to suspend work until the defects are corrected, it should be done. The “owners Engineers” could either be reinforced or even dismissed,” he wrote
The president described the reported shoddy work as disturbing and directed Eng. Muloni to immediately investigate the sloppy work being done by the Chinese firms.
“My information, for instance, points out that there is something known as draft tube where the turbines are supposed to sit. These draft tubes should be assembled outside the hollow structures that are supposed to be their ultimate home and put in the hollows when they are able to align with the other parts. Instead, I am told they wielded in the hollow. I am told that is very risky,” he wrote.
Sinohydro, a Chinese construction company is working on the US $1.6 billion Karuma project that will produce 600Megga watts while Isimba is worth US $570m and is also being constructed by Chinese.
The President directed Muloni to investigate and if found to be true, the construction of the two dams worth US$2.3bn be halted.
“I, therefore, direct you to, at once; confirm if these stories are true so that you stop further and more irreversible mistakes. If, for instance concrete is poured over such defective structures, it will be an irreversible situation of having a defective dam and power house,” Mr Museveni wrote.
