The state has urged investors to seize the business opportunities arising from the completion of Thwake multipurpose dam.
Water Secretary Samuel Alima said proper sewerage connection in Wote town and water supply to Konza Techno City will attract millions of investors.
Alima spoke on Wednesday during a high-level delegation tour led by the AfDB director general East Africa operations Nnenna Nwabufo.
“Since 150,000 cubic meters of water will be pumped from this dam daily, we encourage investors to be ready to set up industries and create jobs for our youth,” he said.
Nwabufo said the project is currently on its first phase and at 68 per cent completion.
She said it will be a game-changer urging all the parties concerned to work with synergy to meet the June target of completion for phase one.
“This is an important legacy project for the country. It will be second largest dam in Kenya with capacity to supply to 1.3 million people of Kitui, Makueni, Machakos and Konza City," she said.
Nwabufo also said the dam has a hydropower generation capacity of 20MW and can irrigate up to 100,000 acres of land in Kitui and Makueni counties.
She said the bank will fully support the state to ensure the project moves within set timelines up to completion. “Whatever depends on us, we will do."
The delegation also lauded the government's efforts in spearheading catchment protection and pollution control activities on Athi River.
“We are working with the government to address issues of pollution. We will carefully evaluate the level of pollution which must be brought under control and arrested,” Nwabufo said.
The director was accompanied by AfDB deputy director general Abdul Kamara, AfDB task manager for Thwake Multipurpose Dam Project Christopher Mutasa and Alex Boakye, a consultant for the bank.
Earlier on, the delegation paid a courtesy call to Makueni commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo who also accompanied the delegation during the tour.
Also in attendance was programme implementation team engineer David Onyango.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
