Inside Karuma dam, Uganda’s new tourism marvel

The Uganda Tourism Board(UTB) has finalized plans aimed at diversifying the country’s tourism products by identifying Karuma hydropower dam into one of the country’s attractions for tourists.

To this, UTB last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) to market the 600 Megawatts Karuma along the Kampala-Gulu highway and 183 Megawatts Isimba dams between Kayunga and Kamuli districts as tourist attractions.

The $1.7 billion hydropower dam is a flagship project for Uganda located on the River Nile in Kiryandongo district.

The Karuma tunnels, a marvel

The Karuma dam has among others six 238metre-long tunnels with a diameter of 7.7metres as well as six concrete pressure shafts of 7.7metres diameter and lengths ranging between 328.59metres and 379.18metres.

Uganda’s flagship project also includes six tailrace branch tunnels and two tailrace tunnels with a diameter of 12.9metres and lengths of 8,690metres and 8,707metres.

Transformers are connected to the generators through 40m-long bus duct tunnels whereas the facility also has a 200m-long surge chamber with a width of 20metres and height of 29mtres as well as being connected to three 2,000 long surge tunnels with a 12metre diameter.

All this is a marvel to look at .

It is yet another marvel to see how water from this plant is diverted to an underground powerhouse consisting of six francis turbines that are coupled to six generator units rated 100MW each at 11kV and with a rotation speed of 142.86rpm.

The on-site substation houses six generator step-up (GSU) transformer units, which step up the 11kV electricity generated to 400kV.

The gross head height of the dam barrage is 70metre, while the height of the roller compacted concrete dam structure is 14metres and its length is 314metres, all of which are a marvel to look at.

In total, the dam has a tunnel  that stretches up to 27km.

UTB CEO, Lilly Ajarova recently led a team of journalists to a guided tour of the tunnels underground the Karuma hydro power dam.

Arriving at around 3PM in a Uganda Wildlife Authority bus, driving in the tunnel was something new to many of us on the escapade.

Getting out of the bus to have a feel of the cavern and channel was a truly awesome experience that makes one appreciate the technology used to construct the tunnel under a dam that one might mistake for a huge rock with a dam on top of it.

The experience inside this spectacular site was another nostalgic feeling that makes you appreciate the wisdom of human beings but above all, there is no question of being bored during this trip.

The dam

Once completed, dam will also have accommodation facilities including a swimming pool, shopping mall, restaurant, souvenir shops  and  museum among others.

According to Lilly Ajarova, the UTB Chief Executive Officer the deal is one of the ways in which they are making overtures in a bid to diversity Uganda’s tourism products beyond the dominant wildlife based sites.

“The MOU will find synergies on how best to use the infrastructure of the two dams for tourism. There is opportunity to further investment in tourism at the two dams. There are strategic scenic views which could be developed for five star hotels.”

UTB will look for investors in the hotels.

Ajarova says the MOU will also looking at introducing boat cruises at the water bodies adjacent to the two dams for proper scenic views, and this according to Ajarova will see more travelers come into the country.

“It will provide a nice experience on the river while you combine it with the scenic endowment of the dams. It is a whole experience to see the beauty of the dams and going underground to see how power is generated.”

It will also see development of sport fishing and bird watching activities at the two dams.

This will further diversity the country’s tourism portfolio not for only foreign travelers but also for local tourists.