Minister of Housing: "The story of building this dam by the hands of Egyptians and their Tanzanian brothers deserves to be told." Eng. Sherif El Sherbiny - Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, inspected the progress of Julius Nyerere Dam and Hydropower Plant, which is being implemented by the Egyptian JV of the Arab Contractors and Elsewedy Electric, on Rufiji River in Tanzania. He was accompanied by the Egyptian Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr. Sherif Ismail, Major Gen. Mahmoud Nassar – Head of the Central Agency for Reconstruction and Head of the Project Follow-up Committee, Eng. Ahmed El Assar – CEO and Chairman of the Arab Contractors Company, Eng. Hassan Mustafa – Vice Chairman of the Arab Contractors Company, Eng. Wael Hamdy – Senior Vice Chairman of Elsewedy Electric, Eng. Mohamed Samaha – JV Manager, Eng. Darem Debsi – Project Coordinator, and a number of officials from the two companies. Eng. Sherif El Sherbiny and his companions toured and listened to a detailed explanation from the JV officials about the project components including the main dam, which is a concrete dam 1036 m long at the top with 7 water outlets, and 4 supplementary dams (a concrete dam 1700m long 3 rock dams with a total length of 16.5 km) to form a water reservoir with a capacity of about 32.8 billion m3, in addition to two temporary dams in front of and behind the main dam to dry and divert during the implementation of the main dam. The Egyptian JV officials added that the project includes the hydropower plant, including civil works, turbines and transformers with a capacity of 2115 MW, and a 400 KV electricity connection station, in addition to various equipment including (construction of a residential complex - road network - crushers and mixers), besides water spillway in the middle of the main dam and the emergency spillway on sub-dam No. 1, temporary and permanent roads to serve the project area, tunnels (a 703m long tunnel to divert river water 3 tunnels with a total length of 1550 m to pass the water needed for the power plant), a permanent concrete bridge and a temporary bridge over Rufiji River. The Minister of Housing directed that all achievements made in this huge project be documented through booklets and photographic documents to record what the JV has accomplished. In this context, officials from the two companies confirmed that a museum will be built within the project components to document all implementation phases. The Minister also stressed the necessity of presenting this great experience at the World Urban Forum, which Egypt will organize on November 4 that will assert the ability of Egyptian companies to implement mega projects, and will open new horizons for our companies, especially since all African housing ministers have been invited to attend this event. El Sherbiny said that the challenges in this project were at various levels, which gave the teamwork extensive experience. This project brought all the arts of engineering together. He praised the training that was given to the Tanzanian workers in the operation work. He added that “the story of building this dam by the hands of the Egyptians and their Tanzanian brothers deserves to be told.” The Minister of Housing stated that the Egyptian state pays great attention to implementing this huge project, which embodies the distinguished relations between Egypt and Tanzania. The project is being followed up periodically by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi - President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and Dr. Mostafa Madbouly - Prime Minister, due to the expected role of the dam and the plant in providing the necessary electrical energy for Tanzania, controlling the flooding of Rufiji River, and preserving the environment. He emphasized that this project emphasized the ability and potential of Egyptian companies to implement mega projects, especially for our brothers in Africa. The Minister concluded his speech by expressing his personal happiness to visit this project, and his readiness to provide all support to the Egyptian JV to complete it in the required manner.