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The heads of government of Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal were invited to the inauguration of this dam because it is a regional project. Acting Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga inaugurated the Gouina dam on Saturday, 45 km from Kayes, in western Mali. A major hydroelectric project of the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River.
The ninth longest river in Africa, the Senegal River has several dams, including the 1,347 meter long Gouina dam. It was built upstream of Kayes with a run-of-river power plant with a capacity of 140 megawatts and it has already been supplying electricity for several months because it has been connected to the electricity grid of Guinea, Mali , Mauritania and Senegal last March.
This infrastructure will allow increase Manantali’s production capacity to 340 megawatts”, said the acting Prime Minister of Mali, Abdoulaye Maïga, during the inauguration. “This dam will have a ripple effect, in the energy sector and in the OMVS space [Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal, NDLR]d’increase the capacity of energy transit in the network, to promote energy exchanges within the framework of the sub-regional energy market and finally to strengthen the capacities of Sogem, which includes among other things the construction of three lines”, he added.
This gigantic work, whose construction was carried out by the Chinese Sinohydro, cost theOMVS 283 billion FCFA, the equivalent of 424 million euros. A sum financed at more than 80% by a loan from the Chinese bank Eximbank.
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The Head of Government of Mali took advantage of this moment to praise the ecological aspect of this project. ” In view of the global orientations in terms of energy production due to the imperatives of limiting global warming, renewable energies undoubtedly remain the energy of the future, the path to salvation for humanity. he said, inviting OMVS to adopt an ambitious action plan for the production of renewable energies, particularly hydroelectricity”.
Another project, even more powerful, is to see the light of day along the Guinean banks of the Senegal River, that of Koukoutamba. An objective to which Mr. Maïga returned, encouraging “ the authorities of the OMVS to expedite the work of this project and to redouble their efforts so that (the) largest hydroelectric dam, namely that of Koukoutamba in Guinea, is completed as soon as possible ».
According to the OMVS, this new dam will cover the energy needs of the four Member States.
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