Within the assignment for undertaking “Feasibility studies, detailed design and preparation of tender document for Angololo water resources development project”, that BETA Studio is developing in partnership with Z&A Engineering Consultancy for designing a dam, hydropower plant, water supply system and irrigation scheme, a week of surveys and workshops was carried out during the first week of September 2021. The Angololo Project is promoted by the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) within the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP), a cooperative investment program of NBI; the project is located along the perennial Malaba River, an equatorial tributary of the Nile that marks the border between Uganda and Kenya.
The workshop and meetings held in Busia (Kenya) were well attended by involved the Client, the Local Authorities, the Stakeholders, local and international experts, and the Citizens; it has represented an important opportunity to expose the submitted feasibility study results and establish the future steps of the project. Eng. Marco De Marco, the Project Coordinator for BETA Studio, has actively participated in the coordination of the workshop and its success.
During the on-field inspection activities, held before the workshop, the two Ugandan and Kenyan communities involved in the project met on both sides of the river to share their opinions and intentions. “We are brothers and sisters because, even if we have different flags, we communicate with the same language” was shouted by the Ugandan side and received with thunderous applause by the Kenyan side.
The Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program seeks to reduce poverty in the region through the identification and preparation of a strategic portfolio of bankable water resources management and development projects that demonstrate benefits of cooperation to each country, within a broader coordinated water-related investment strategy for the region.
