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

/ -: 1 ntroduction The 6 th internat ional session of the association Initiat ives for the Fut ure of Great Rivers was held fram 9 to 13 Apri l, betwee n Sa int-Louis and Dakar, in Senegal, host ed by t he Organisation fo r t he Development of the Senegal River (OMVS), one of its members. A basin management body that brings together Senegal, Mali, Maur itania and Guinea, the OMVS, fo unded in 1972 , isan outstanding example of cross border cooperation. There, where water is a source of dispute, here, between us, it is a source of conciliation, integration and cooperation. A remarkable achievement. HAMED sEMEGA, HIGH COMMISSIONER, OMVs TheOMVSwas created in the wake of important droughts in t he 1970s. Its purposewas to allow a better management of water, follow ing th ree basic principles: the river and its t ributaries are international property; th eir resources are exploited mut ually and fairly; ail t he structu res are the common property of t he States. Cooperation and int egration are therefo re t he two strong values of th is intergovernmental organisat ion. The ult imate goal of the OMVS is to reach food self-suff iciency for local popula t ions, boost econom ic development by using the river's poten tial and insure an ecolog ical balance in t he basin' . ln order to f ulf il its ambit ion, t he OMVS must however accompli sh one of its missions: that of making the river navigable. Navigat ion thrived during the 1960s between Saint-Lou is and Kayes, but stopped complete ly in the 1970s due to the combined effects of poor river bed maintenance and the great drought of 1973-1975. Today, the river is plied by on ly one tourist boat, the Bou El Mogdad. ' See Append ix 1: The OMVS: a single body of governance and a model of integrated management, p.25 3