China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) signed Friday with the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS), the construction contract for the fifth dam on the Senegal River, the future Gourbassi dam on the tributary of the Falémé, on the Senegalese-Malian border..
Worth almost FCFA 160 billion (€ 243 million) that CMEC will have to mobilize, the structure will have multiple purposes thanks to an installed capacity of 18 MW, which will above all control the waters of this major tributary of the Senegal river, by providing an optimum guaranteed flow of 500m3 / s at Bakel, the station hydrometric reference which controls almost all the flows in the lower valley of the Senegal river, according to the press release.
This dam will, on the one hand,improve access to electricity in Senegal and Mali, on the other hand, raise the water level of the Senegal River to 2.1 billion m3 of water, allowing permanent navigation over 905 km, from Saint-Louis in Senegal to Ambidébi in Mali, which will serve several sectors, notably agriculture.
On the other hand, it will enable OMVS to provide support for light floods to guarantee sufficient flooding of the flood plains and allow flooding crops. ” Additional areas may be irrigated in the off-season by regulated supplies from the dam. What will boost the agricultural potential of the Senegal river valley“, Emphasizes the OMVS according toAfrik21.
Finally, it will allow the development of fishing activities.
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