French company Sogea-Satom is set to begin construction of the Ruiru II dam which will increase the water supply to 300,000 residents of Nairobi.

Representatives of the company recently held discussions with Treasury CS Ukur Yattani to discuss the launch of construction work on the dam, which will be located upstream from the Ruiru I dam.

Sogea-Satom is developing the project as part of a public-private partnership (PPP) with its partner French company, Egis.

The project entails the construction of an earth dam 55 metres high and 260 metres long on the Ruiru and Bathi rivers with a reservoir capacity of 7,500,000 cubic metres of water.

“Once the construction phase has begun, Egis will be closely involved in supervising the works, including the management of the site laboratory, the installation of the dam’s instrumentation system and the monitoring of the social and environmental aspects of the project”, said Egis.

Sogea-Satom and Egis will also build a drinking water plant in Ndumberi near Kiambu, with a capacity to supply 40,000 cubic meters per day.

The plant will draw water from the dam basin via a 16.5 km long pipeline. The two companies have agreed to invest Ksh. 6.7 billion in the water project which will be connected to a 5,000 cubic-metres storage tank in Kiambu and a second 10,000 cubic-metres storage tank in the Karuri.