Some rural areas of Nyaruguru District, Southern Province, could be using hydropower after September 2008, according to an electricity investment outfit. Energy Nyaruguru (ENNY), a private firm, has already surveyed locations with the most potential for hydro-electricity production, only waiting turbines to exploit them. The profit-making project budgeted to cost over Frw915m in its first phase is anticipated to generate at least 600kw for about 1000 consumers. The firm cited Mazimera and Maruruma as places with capacity to generate 450kw and 150kw respectively, for hydro-power generation, following a technical study carried out in 2001.The project at both sites is a joint venture of ENNY, Carera – a German firm – and another group, the Association for the Development of Nyabimata (ADEYA). According to Firimini Mutabazi, the head of ENNY, the required money will be raised through from bank loans, donors, investor capital grant and private-public partnership schemes. He told journalists yesterday that the Netherlands Embassy in Kigali has so far promised to fund the project, which is about to kick-start. “We have located the sites and finalised procurement billings for required machines (turbines) to be used,” Mutabazi said during a press conference at Hotel Castel, Kigali. He said that ENNY has already obtained a go-head endorsement from various concerned parties including residents on how the project could be profitable and practical. “Essentially, we had to first look at the livelihoods of targeted beneficiaries who in this project are rural people in order to decide charges of electricity they will consume,” he noted. Mutabazi explained that the cost of their power will range from Frw50 to Frw100 per kilowatt unlike the current Frw140 per kw by Electrogaz, the national power generating company. The start of micro hydro-power venture in Nyaruguru will bring the total of min hydro-electricity projects to six in the country. Ends
