Nairobi, June 14 -- The government was forced to pull a Sh38.85 billion ($300 million) dam project from the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programme after it emerged that the water tariffs required by the contractor to recoup its investment would be too high.

The National Irrigation Authority (NIA) said it had been directed to restructure the Galana Dam project from a PPP model into a deferred-payment arrangement that will see the State corporation sell water and repay the contractor from the proceeds.

The proposed Galana Dam was conceived as a critical piece of infrastructure to unlock large-scale irrigation in the Galana River basin and support Kenya's long-standing ambition of achieving food security.

Consequently, the government ...