Tanzania in 2006: a land plunged into darkness. Generators roar from every corner, spewing black smoke as businesses struggle through endless power cuts. This energy crisis, fuelled by a brutal drought, exposed a harsh reality that Tanzania’s leaders had failed to prepare for. But amidst the blackouts, a daring solution emerged.
Enter China with a technological behemoth: the Three Gorges Dam in China’s Hubei province. This engineering marvel dwarfs anything Tanzania has seen – a 2.3-kilometre giant with a 660km long reservoir, all for a cool $22.5 billion. Being the largest dam in the world by installed capacity, and ten times bigger than the Nyerere Dam, the Three Gorges Dam isn’t just about showing off. It controls floods, generates massive amounts of power, and even has fancy ship elevators! While Tanzania battled blackouts, the main structure of China’s future-proofed solution was being completed. A huge window of opportunity opened to Tanzania.
