Chinese Government provides an interest-free loan for the Kébir River Dam Construction Project

Project narrative

On March 9, 2004 and March 10, 2004, the Chinese Government and the Government of Tunisia signed an exchange of letters, which committed an interest-free loan for the Kébir River Dam Construction Project. Then, on April 8, 2004, the Tunisian Parliament passed a law, approving the interest-free loan. In addition to the Chinese Government, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development provided a $28 million loan for this project in 2000. The primary purpose of this project was to construct a dam on the Kébir River near the town of Tabarka (Dabarka) within the Gafsa Governorate (ولاية قفصة‎) to address irrigation and residential water shortages in the region. It consisted of 3 components: the construction of a clay core rockfill dam (with water storage capacity of 64 million cubic meters), the construction of a spillway tunnel, and the construction of a water pipeline. The dam was designed to be 70 meters high and 10 meters wide. Its crest was designed to be 560 meters long. Upon completion, the dam was designed to transport 35 million cubic meters of water per year to the Sidi Barrak Reservoir and reduce the risk of flooding within the Gafsa Governorate. China International Water & Electric Corporation (CWE) was the contractor responsible for implementation. Tunisia's Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, as the owner of the dam, was the ultimate beneficiary of this project and provided implementation support. CONCEPT S.A., a Tunisian consulting company, assisted in the creation of the preliminary, design plans, and tender documents, as well as supervised the work and provided technical assistance to commissioning. Construction began on January 1, 2003. At the time, the project had a timeline of 45 months; it was expected to be completed by the end of 2005. The project was nearing completion in January 2007. However, it experienced major delays due to domestic political unrest in Tunisia, construction material shortages, price increases, and technical capacity constraints among local construction firms. The Government of Tunisia repeatedly extended the required completion deadline of the project amidst the delays. CWE signed another project implementation contract (worth $16.65 million) on January 31, 2012. As of February 2015, the project had achieved a 26% completion rate and its new expected completion date was April 2016. According to the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, this project was completed some time before the end of 2017.