Manantali Dam
| Manantali Dam | |
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Manantali Dam, 2001.
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 Location of Manantali Dam in Mali
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| Location | Kayes Region, Mali |
| Coordinates | 13°11′44″N 10°25′44″W / 13.19556°N 10.42889°WCoordinates: 13°11′44″N 10°25′44″W / 13.19556°N 10.42889°W |
| Construction began | 1982 |
| Opening date | 1988 |
| Operator(s) | Manantali Energy Management Company, the Société de gestion de l’énergie de Manantali (SOGEM) |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Bafing River |
| Height | 65 m (213 ft) |
| Length | 1,460 m (4,790 ft) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Lake Manantali |
| Total capacity | 11.3×106 m3 (400×106 cu ft) |
| Surface area | 477 km2 (184 sq mi) |
| Power station | |
| Commission date | 2001 |
| Turbines | 5 x 40 MW (54,000 hp) Kaplan-type |
| Installed capacity | 200 MW (270,000 hp) |
The Manantali Dam is a multi-purpose dam on the Bafing river in the Senegal River basin, 90 kilometres (56 mi) to the south-east of Bafoulabé, in Mali's Kayes Region.
Early planning for the dam began in 1972 when the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal, or OMVS) was set up by Mali, Mauritania and Senegal to develop the agricultural and hydropower potential of the basin. The World Bank declined to fund the dam in 1979, considering it an unreasonable investment. However, financing was secured mainly from Europe and construction on the dam began in 1982. It was completed in 1988, but without the hydropower plant. In 1989 the Mauritania–Senegal Border War stopped all work on the project. A Swiss journalist who visited Manantali in 1988 described the project as a "luxury car without a motor". In 1993 Carl–Dieter Spranger, then Germany's minister for development assistance, called Manantali an "act of economic and environmental nonsense". When the conflict subsided in 1991 the OMVS sought a new loan package for the hydropower plant, which was finally put together in 1997. The dam began to produce electricity for Senegal, Mali and Mauritania in 2001.
Today the dam is managed by the tripartite Manantali Energy Management Company, the Société de gestion de l’énergie de Manantali (SOGEM) created in 1997. SOGEM in turn has signed a 15-year concession contract with the private company EEM, a subsidiary of the South African national power company ESKOM, to operate the plant. OMVS is represented on the board of SOGEM. Citing "contractual difficulties in executing the contract", Eskom has entered into an agreement with SOGEM to terminate it as of 1 October 2011, according to the company's 2011 financial report.
The total cost of the dam, its associated hydropower plant, the deforestation of the future reservoir, studies and "complementary measures" was 1.02bn Euro. The construction cost of the related Diama Dam further downstream was an additional 50m Euro.
The dam was jointly financed by 16 donors, including German (14%) and French (13%) development cooperation, the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Nations Development Program. The three benefiting African countries also contributed to the financing. 64% of the foreign financing was through soft loans and 36% through grants. The European Community, the Islamic Development Bank, the West African Development Bank, and the Nordic Development Fund also contributed to the financing. The government of Norway had declined to finance the dam because of concerns about its health impact.
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