Egypt is has signed a protocol with South Sudan to carry out feasibility studies for the Wau Dam project in the south of the country, according to Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation announced.
The dam project will be on Siwi River, one of the main branches of the Jur River in western South Sudan, flowing through the Bahr el-Ghazal and Equatoria regions.
The infrastructure will provide water for irrigation for 500,000 people.
The multi-purpose Wau Dam project in South Sudan aims to generate 10.40 megawatts of electricity, in addition to providing drinking water to about 500 thousand people, and benefiting from water in supplementary irrigation for about 30-40 thousand feddans.
This work will complement integrated technical and economic studies carried out at the project site in 2015 by the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, in collaboration with Egypt’s National Water Research Centre (NWRC).
This includes hydrological and hydraulic studies, as well as surveying and contour mapping for the dam site and storage lake. This is in addition to geological, geotechnical, construction and environmental studies, as well as the initial designs of the dam and its facilities.
A contract was also made with the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to assign the design work of the electrical station and its accessories and to study its economic feasibility through one of its specialized companies, which cooperated with one of the major consulting offices to prepare the required studies.
All technical and economic studies were completed and handed over to the South Sudanese side in a huge workshop held in the city of Wau, in the presence of government officials, technicians, representatives of civil societies in the state and some investment companies in February 2015.
This project comes as part of Egypt’s efforts to achieve stability for the people in the region, by solving drinking water problems and protecting them from the dangers of floods, such as the cooperation between Egypt and Tanzania to build the Rovinji Dam.
