Nyumba ya Mungu Dam

Nyumba ya Mungu Dam
The Nyumba ya Mungu Reservoir
Map of Tanzania showing the location of Nyumba ya Mungu Dam
Official name	Pangani Hydro Systems
Location	Mwanga District, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania
Coordinates	03°49′33.0″S 37°28′9.6″E
Construction began	1967
Opening date	1969
Owner(s)	TANESCO
Dam and spillways
Impounds	Pangani River
Height	43m
Spillway type	Earth and Rock Fill
Reservoir
Total capacity	600×10^^6 m^3 (490,000 acre⋅ft)
Catchment area	7,668 km^2 (2,961 sq mi)
Power Station
Operator(s)	Tanesco
Commission date	1969
Turbines	2x4
Installed capacity	8 MW (11,000 hp)
Website Tanesco website

Nyumba ya Mungu Dam is a Tanzanian, hydroelectric dam located in and operated in Mwanga District, Kilimanjaro Region. It was built in the late 1960s and is Kilimanjaro region's largest artificial water body. Nyumba ya Mungu Reservoir. The reservoir is shared with Moshi District of Kilimanjaro Region and Simanjiro District of Manyara Region. Nyumba ya Mungu means 'House of God'.^[1] Its installed capacity is 8 megawatts (11,000 hp).^[2]

Overview

Reservoir

Nyumba ya Mungu is a man made lake in the Kilimanjaro region. The reservoir is situated in the Pangani River Valley of the Masai Steppe, about 50 km south of Moshi. It is fed by two major inflows, the rivers Kikuletwa and Ruvu which drain some 7,500 square kilometres (2,900 sq mi) of catchment consisting of wooded grassland, forest, true desert, and alpine desert.^[3]

It was constructed for the purposes of irrigation, hydro-electric power and to start a local fishing industry. The reservoir was completed in December 1965 however the irrigation scheme had not yet been developed. The plan was to build a dam that would have served the purpose of storing flood flow, which would allow the development of some 30,000 acres of irrigated farming and generation of electricity power.^[4]

By 1970 the lake had a thriving Tilapia fishery production. However, this did not last long and subsequent reports from 1972 and 1973 showed a major decline in fish product.^[4]

See also

• Tanzania Electric Supply Company
• List of power stations in Tanzania

References

1. "Is 'Nyumba-Ya-Mungu' Dam No Longer the 'House of God?'". Tanzania Daily News. AllAfrica. 18 June 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
2. "Pangani Hydro Systems". Tanzania Electric Supply Company. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
3. IUCN WATER AND NATURE INITIATIVE / PANGANI BASIN WATER BOARD (January 2009). Hydroelectric Power Modelling Study. Pangani River Basin Flow Assessment (PDF) (Report). Pangani Basin Water Board, Moshi and IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Programme. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
4. Denny, Patrick (14 January 2008). "Nyumba ya Mungu reservoir, Tanzania: The general features". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 10 (1): 5–28. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1978.tb00002.x.

External links