THE BUMBUNA COMMISSIONING AND STORY

Return to Bumbuna List Menu

THE BUMBUNA STORY - PHASE I

Fellow citizens and friends of Sierra Leone both at home and abroad, development partners, this is a story about a newly completed modern Hydroelectric Power Dam situated in the Kalasonguoia Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, Sierra Leone.

The Dam is called the Bumbuna Hydro Power Plant. The dam site is 2.5 km upstream of



Bumbuna Falls, with a run-of-river facility drainage area of 3,240 kilometres square. The Dam is located in the valleys of the Sula Mountains about 200 km northeast of Freetown.

Bumbuna Hydroelectric Power Dam Situated in the Kalasonguoia
Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, Sierra Leone.

There is no intention to reduce this story to the world of folktales, but indeed, Bumbuna Hydroelectric Project has been completed after nearly 30 years since its inception.  The Bumbuna Hydroelectric Power Project which is the largest project ever undertaken by the Governments of Sierra Leone which started in 1973, under the leadership of Late President Dr. Siaka Probyn Stevens.

The Vice President and Prime Minister, Hon. Sorie Ibrahim Koroma signed another Agreement in Connection with Bumbuna Hydroelectric Project at his Office in Freetown in May 1974. Flanked on the left is the Signed Contract and Agreement; right is the “We Yone Press” Reported Article on the signing of Project another Agreement and Contract on the Bumbuna Hydroelectric Project, 14th May 1974.

It is important to note that the construction work of the project started in the early 1980s since its inception in 1973. Late President Joseph Saidu Momoh continued bilateral and multilateral negotiations started by his predecessor- Late President Stevens.

The Bumbuna Project suffered delay as a result of the some funding problems and later the rebel war which started in 1991. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) led by Late Corporal Foday Saybanah Sankoh engaged the APC Government led by Late President Dr. Momoh in a civil war on the 23rd March 1991. On the 29th April 1992, Late President Momoh was over thrown by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) led by Captain Valentine E.M. Strasser. Captain Strasser was also overthrown in a palace coup by his second man Rtd Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, who stayed till the General Elections in 1996.

This political unrest escalated the war, which brought the Bumbuna Project to a complete stop for nearly ten years. Even though the Bumbuna Dam site was protected from the rebel menaces, Project facilities and equipments outside the Dam site were vandalized and looted. In actual fact, very little was done in the war years to mobilize the Bumbuna Project to a logical conclusion.

(Pictures of Pa Siaka Stevens, Momoh, Strasser, Maada Bio, Tejan Kabbah)

Continue on next page

Top

Home

Previous

Next

Return to Bumbuna List Menu