Hydrological assessment for potential hydropower schemes on mount Elgon rivers

Mount Elgon Rivers located in eastern Uganda. This is a mountainous, rural catchment with elevations in the range of 1000 to 4,300 metres above mean sea level. The average annual rainfall over Mount Elgon region is about 1500 mm. Land use is predominantly small-scale agriculture. There are three main urban towns on the slopes of mount Eligon and these serve as district headquarters for the main districts of Kapchorwa, Mbale and Tororo. The supply of hydroelectric power to these towns from the national grid is unreliable due to deficiencies in both generation and transmission from Owen falls dam in Jinja, Uganda. However, significant water resources are found in the study area where harnessing the energy of falling water by means of small hydropower plants is one way of providing affordable energy for the development of the towns and rural areas. These towns and rural areas have continued to express demand for electric power in the region. This therefore constitutes a ready market for any power produced from hydropower schemes. A hydrological assessment for two sites known for long to be promising and suitable for hydropower development on rivers Manafwa and Sipi was done. The main objective of the hydrological analysis was to estimate the hydropower production potential of the identified hydropower sites and perform a preliminary economic analysis of the proposed hydropower projects.