It is now 10 years since President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is China’s initiative aimed at improving infrastructure of developing countries globally.
Since 2013, the initiative has evolved, serving more purposes and benefits beyond just roads, railways and airports to the global south. A number of heads of state and governments will be attending the BRI forum in Beijing China to evaluate achievements over the past decade.
Here in Uganda we already counting blessings. I recently embarked on producing a documentary featuring a young Ugandan couple who met at one of the BRI projects in Uganda, Karuma Hydro Power Project.
The couples’ story caught the attention of local and international media, let me share some interesting facts with you before releasing the documentary.
Bless Ayebazibwe, green from university in 2019, applied for a job at the Karuma Hydropower Dam as a civil engineer. Little known to him, at the time, that he would secure the job, fall in love and start a family in a place he considered alien.
Along the magnificently rough falls of Karuma, lies Uganda’s largest hydroelectric generation facility. Expected to add 600 megawatts to the national grid, the Karuma Hydro Power plant will address the challenge of Uganda’s inadequate power supply and lower electricity tariffs in the country, to UGx3 ($0.0008) per unit. Uganda’s electricity generation capacity currently stands at 950MW, costing UGx645 ($0.173) per unit.
The power station which officially commenced construction in August 2013, is located along the Nile River in Kiryandongo district, about 100km downstream of Lake Kyoga and 270km from the country’s capital. The project is being undertaken by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, with funding from Exim Bank.
It was initially slated for commissioning in 2018, however, this lagged due to construction and policy challenges. But not for long. The completion of the project now stands at 99.9% and four of its six turbine sets have already been launched and synchronised to the national grid.
Although the commissioning of the $1.7b hydropower dam is behind schedule, the project has hitherto transformed the lives of many young Ugandans. Sinohydro Corporation limited, a Chinese construction engineering company that was contracted to undertake the project, employs over 6,000 Ugandans in skilled and semi-skilled areas.
For a country like Uganda that grapples with high unemployment rates – currently standing at about 6% – this is a glimmer of hope. Employment opportunities, however, are just a drop in the ocean of benefits that the Kiryandondo community attributes to the project. Ten years since the construction of the project started, Karuma Town Council has also witnessed better infrastructure and the development of a vibrant town.
The first thing one notices on the way to the dam is the tarmacked highway, coupled with better housing, and developed markets that have become a symbol of unity in a town that draws in people from all walks of life. This, residents say, is a direct result of the hydropower project. A once little-known town council is now home to entire families and budding ones. One such transformed life is that of Ayebazibwe.
Ayebazibwe, armed with only his documents and hope, applied for the job. He went through a rigorous selection process and attained the position he has held for the past five years.
Born and raised in Rukungiri district, about 400 kilometres from Kampala in western Uganda, Blessing never dreamt of living so far away from home. He moved miles away from home, for an opportunity to transform his life. He was alone in a foreign land, with new languages and alien cultures.
As fate would have it, on his first day at work, he was guided to the procurement office to pick mandatory personal protective gear required for his duties. This is where he met Monica Nyamungu, a procurement officer at the plant.
Monica comes from Nebbi district in West Nile, near the border of Uganda and South Sudan. Karuma was also a new environment for her at the time of joining the project.
“I joined the project before Blessing, so I understood the challenges of being new in a foreign land. I gave him a warm welcome and tried to make him feel at home,” Monica says.
Asked if she fell in love with him at first sight, she chuckles and responds: “I fell in love with his looks.”
Like a story from a fairytale book, they fell in love. The couple has so far carried out their customary marriage and welcomed a bundle of joy, baby Ayebazibwe Austin. The love birds are also in the planning stages of their church nuptials that is slated for sometime next year. With only each other, and maybe a few friends, to rely on, the couple has found a home in Karuma town council.
From their joint savings, Bless and Monica bought a piece of land in Wakiso, in central Uganda, where they are already constructing a house in anticipation of the completion of the project that is expected to be commissioned soon.
Since its commencement, the Karuma Hydro Power dam has missed its deadlines at least three times. Therefore, news of it being commissioned soon is welcomed with excitement by the entire region. However, fears of unemployment echo in the corridors of the project camp. But, some choose to see the silver lining, of what the project has behind.
“Of course we are worried that once the project is commissioned we will not have jobs. But we believe that the experience we have gained in the past five years will be instrumental in helping us get even better jobs,” Bless says.
However, it is not only the project workers that have benefited, Sinohyro Corporation has also gone the extra mile to train unskilled locals in ventures that can prove their livelihoods as part of their corporate social responsibility.
Therefore, as the project nears its completion, it leaves behind much more than just an electricity-generating firm, but, improved lives, better infrastructure and a legacy that will live on for centuries.
Mubarak Mugabo,
The writer is Ugandan Journalist and fellow at China Africa Press Center.
