All great mysteries begin at the end and end at the very beginning. Anyone can see where it ends, pouring northward through Egypt and into the Mediterranean Sea. But locating the origins of this magnificent river befuddled nearly everybody.
The search for the source of the Nile has captivated explorers and historians for centuries. The Victorians were looking specifically for the source of the White Nile, a major tributary of the river. Edith Matega, a high school history teacher in Kampala, Uganda, near the headwaters of the White Nile, says the Victorians were looking for something that wasn’t lost. Speke was the first white man to see Lake Victoria, a major source of the river.
Before the mid-19th century, Davies says, the job of following the Nile from beginning to end was too difficult for anyone -- European or African -- to tackle. But Samuel and Florence Baker found a major piece of the puzzle. They approached from Sudan, walking where they couldn’t sail, sailing where they couldn’t walk and moving forward where there was no going back. As the British say, the Bakers had “settled” the Nile.
Read also: Uganda's Natural Wonder
The Submergence of Bujagali Falls and the Construction of the Dam
Despite years of warnings, Richard Njuba was still stunned when Uganda's Bujagali Falls actually flooded in late 2011. For three years, the river guide had been taking people on boats for a closer view of the falls, which were not so much a waterfall but a series of raging rapids about six miles (ten kilometers) north of the source of the Nile.
The flooding of Bujagali Falls to create a reservoir was one of the last steps before the launch of Uganda's $862-million, 250-megawatt Bujagali Dam on the Victoria Nile, one of the two great tributaries to the world's longest river. In early November, Njuba noticed the water level rising, and less than two weeks later, the cascading falls were gone, he said.
The steady flow of income and of CSR programmes which benefitted local schools and other facilities, has dried up at this part of the river, as the tourists are now arriving further downstream for their rafting, leaving their past stomping grounds less busy, with less employment and less income for the locals. River Nile is locally known as, ‘Omugga Kiyira’ that means the river that roars. It is also a home to the Bujagali falls that were submerged by the creation of the 250 MW Bujagali Dam in 2007.
Since 1998 a dam called The Bujagali Dam (actually 3km downstream), has been planned and its initial completion date was by 2003. From 2006, having had a welcome delay with the river left open, dam construction under new managers Bujagali Energy Limited (BEL), restarted with a completion date of 2011.
The popularity of white-water rafting increased; thousands of tourists come to enjoy the area each year. Right beside the falls Speke Camp hung in limbo but elsewhere, improvements in many areas such as accommodation continues, both at Bujagali and in the area back to Jinja on the banks of the river.
Read also: Unique Tennessee Waterfall
When planning for the dam first started, it was envisaged that rafting and other tourism activities would shift from Bujagali Falls to re-locate downstream. From 1st March 2011, the River Nile has been closed for rafting above the dam site and all the rafting companies have shifted their start points to below the dam, running much the same trip, missing the first 3 big rapids; Bujagali, ‘Total Gunga’ (Kyabirwa Falls) and ‘Big Brother/Silverback’; but including extra rapids downstream such as ‘Vengeance’ and ‘Nile Special’. we still have fantastic white water rafting with heart-throbbing sections of Grade 3,4 and 5 rapids interspersed with long dreamy sections of forested riverbank floating down on warm water.
The Impact of Tourism on Local Communities
Impacts of the Dam
Frank Muramuzi, the executive director of Uganda's National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), said the energy gains don't outweigh the environmental costs. He ticked off environmentalists' objections: the flooding of natural animal habitats, the possible disruption of fish migrations, and the forced resettlement of families to create the reservoir.
BEL did follow up on efforts that AES had started to resettle or compensate the roughly 8,700 people affected by the flooding. The company also worked with local wildlife authorities to rescue animals that would have been trapped in the reservoir. Gaydar said it was part of BEL's "outside-the-fence activities," which also included establishing schools, medical clinics, and a micro-credit fund in affected communities.
Businesses continued to grow and more tourists came to Uganda fifteen years ago, Bujagali falls became better known as one of Uganda ’s main scenic and inter-active destinations. Hundreds of thousands of visitors, including generations of Ugandan school-children on day-visit, can attest to the sticky qualities of ‘Bujagali Mud’, the red clay soil that layers boots and bare feet, adhering to everything after a tropical rainstorm.
Read also: Best Time for Victoria Falls
The Bujagali hydropower dam on the River Nile in Uganda was initially approved in 1994 as the lowest cost option to increase power production in the country. The project faced numerous economic, environmental and social challenges, which combined to delay its progress, and it also underwent investigations over bribery claims and external reviews of its capacity and design. The project was completed in 2012, but was widely criticised for being a questionable investment given the expense. Electricity prices in the country actually increased. The large expenditure on the project could have been used to invest in more sustainable energy sources. The amount of electricity that the project would actually be able to produce was less than half of the 250MW was initially proposed.
The Bujagali hydropower dam, on the Bujagali Falls, is located on the Victoria Nile on Dumbbell Island, in Jinja. Upon its commissioning in 2011, the dam was expected to have an output of 250 MW and boost the slow economic growth, which was at the time attributed to a severe shortage of electricity in Uganda. The construction of the dam left over 8,700 people displaced, resettled or lost assets. In 2001, some 35 households with about 350 members were resettled in Naminya.
The dam has also had a significant and negative impact on local culture. Prior to being dammed, the Bujagali Falls was an important part of one of the traditional faiths of people in Uganda and is named for Jajja Bujagali, a spiritual leader. Tens of thousands of followers, including people from other districts like Kampala, Jinja and Mukono used to visit this site for spiritual healing.
Bujagali Falls (also spelled Budhagali) was a waterfall near Jinja in Uganda where the Nile River comes out of Lake Victoria, sometimes considered the source of the Nile. The falls are said by local residents to be the site of a spirit, called the "Spirit of Bujabald," who protects the community by performing rituals at the falls.
The New Bujagali
Local companies, with financial support from BEL, are moving quickly to ensure that the loss of the falls does not spell an end to tourism in the region. Peter Knight owns All Terrain Adventures, which offers quad biking in the area, as well as a café and bar. He started building the business in 2002, knowing that the rapids would one day disappear. Last year he put in a miniature golf course.
By the time the falls flooded, he said, he had already invested too much in the location to move. Now he's working out a rebranding strategy, hoping to get the idea of Lake Bujagali to catch on. It could be a place geared toward families and relaxation.
As the site diminished in the distance, we couldn’t help but ponder on the words by Debasish Mridha., ‘We are born and reborn again and again. We are changing with the waves of time.’ The ancestral site found a new home, and the country a dam. What does this say about our conservation of cultural sites?
The River Nile below Bujagali Falls to the dam does not need to hold much water. The only major outflow of Lake Victoria passes through the Owens Falls/Nalubale Dams and within about 7 hours surges through the turbines in the lower dam. Lake Victoria provides the reservoir, what goes through 1 dam passes onwards through the next.
It will remain a beautiful section of the river, albeit much quieter, and we expect facilities and more adventure orientated tourist activities to develop over the next few years. When the dam is completed and the power of the river is harnessed for urgently needed additional hydro-electric power, expect tourism to be on the rise at the former Bujagali Falls.
Popular articles:
tags: #Uganda
