Plaquette : Making the Senegal river navigable - IAGF 6ème session

The construction of the Diama dam has permitted the supply of the towns located in desert and serni– desert areas w ith drinking water throug hout the year. The river supplies almost 100% of the drinking wat er of Nouakchott, 200 km away, and 50% of Dakar's water needs. Before, during the dry seasons, salt int rusion fram sea water could infiltrate up to 200 km upstream of Sai nt-Louis, which obviously led to shortages of freshwater for domestic and agricultural uses, among others. The challenge of freshwater nonetheless remains poignant, wi th the salinization of freshwater close to the coast and the proliferation of cattail. Some regions, like that of Matam (west Senegal), suffer from several sources of instability, including food insecu rity. Access to drinking water in these areas is there a vital issue. Very early on OMVS wanted to develop the basin's hydroelectricity potential, to aid indust rial development and reduce the energy deficit of the member countr ies. Two hydropower development schemes were built: Manantali (2002) and Félou (2013), with an installed capacity of 260MW and an average output of 1,100 GWh/year, distributed to ail the countries via a grid of 1,300 km of power t ransmission lines. To satisfy energy requirements, which w ill double from now to 2025, the OMVS aims to commission new plants (Gouina, Boureaya and Gourbassi) to reach more than two th irds of the total available hydroelectric capacity of the basin and store nearly 23 billion m 3 of water to contro l the discharges of the river and its t ributaries. The river supplies of Dakar's water needs. 29