CAIRO — Egypt is trying to recreate the Aswan High Dam experience by building a similar dam in Tanzania. On Nov. 8, Egypt’s Minister of Housing Asim al-Gazzar and Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker attended a ceremony, in the presence of Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa and representatives of the Egyptian Armed Forces Engineering Authority, Arab Contractors and Elsewedy Electric, as well as Egyptian banks, to celebrate the completion of the first stage of the construction of the first dam on the Rufiji River. After completing the diversion of the river course, work on the main bridge of the dam has now started. 

The dam is part of the Julius Nyerere dam and hydropower station, which will be the largest in Tanzania. 

In December 2018, the Tanzanian government announced that Egypt’s largest companies in the construction sector — Arab Contractors and Elsewedy Electric — won a bid to build the dam at a cost of $2.9 billion. The project is expected to be completed and inaugurated in 2022.

During his speech at the ceremony in Tanzania, Gazzar said, “The Egyptian government places the success of this project as a top priority, and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is closely following up on the stages of its implementation.”