On 24 January 2002, crowds gathered for a celebration on the banks of the Nile River. Just north of the town of Jinja, in the east African country of Uganda, diplomats, bilateral and multilateral agency representatives, citizens, Members of Parliament, and the President of Uganda all congregated for what was thought to be the beginning of the construction of a new 250-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric dam – the Bujagali dam.