The Nairobi Water Supply Tunnel Project in Kenya, undertaken by China Gezhouba Group Road & Bridge Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Gezhouba Group Co., Ltd. under China Energy Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (Energy China), is officially handed over on Aug 7 local time. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The Nairobi Water Supply Tunnel Project in Kenya, undertaken by China Gezhouba Group Road & Bridge Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Gezhouba Group Co., Ltd. under China Energy Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (Energy China), was officially handed over on Aug 7 local time.
The Nairobi Water Supply Tunnel Project is a national key project in Kenya. It is located about 70 kilometers north of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The main construction involved building a water diversion tunnel with a diameter of 3 meters and a length of 11.7 kilometers. This tunnel diverts water from three rivers to the Thika reservoirs, providing domestic water to Nairobi and surrounding towns.
The water supply tunnel passes through the plateau region of East Africa and is currently the longest water diversion tunnel in East Africa. As the excavation diameter is just 4 meters, the tunnel features a shallow buried depth, small cross section, and long distance. The construction space inside the tunnel is limited, presenting great engineering challenges.
According to different working conditions, the project has developed a comprehensive set of techniques for ultra-long tunnel excavation and slag removal, which has solved the problem of excavation and slag removal of small cross-section and ultra-long tunnels. The main tunnel construction took five years to complete, achieving the overall water diversion goal.
During the construction process, the project adhered to localization of labor services, and trained more than 800 local technical workers and over 50 local management personnel. It provided stable job opportunities for over 2,000 Kenyan people, and enhanced living standards of the local community.
Upon completion, the Nairobi Water Supply Project will meet 13.7 percent of the water demand of the Nairobi metropolitan area, benefiting 1.28 million people in Nairobi and its surrounding towns.
(Executive editor: Xie Yunxiao)
