Global Water Partnership

<p>The project aims to provide solutions to the problems of interruption of navigation on Oubangui River, tributary of the Congo River in the region of Central Africa. This is particularly the case during periods of low water levels, and the supply of electricity to the Central African Republic (CAR), North Congo and the Congo. DRC, through the construction of a Oubangui flow control and power generation dam at the Palambo site, is about 60 km upstream from Bangui.</p>

<p>The characteristics of the scenario chosen among the solutions proposed by SOGREAH in 1990 were as follows:</p>

<ul>
<li>Normal retention rating of 361 m;</li>
<li>Height of the dam of approximately 18 m;</li>
<li>Area of 606 x106 m 2;</li>
<li>Length of approximately 1,200 m;</li>
<li>Minimum downstream flow to reach at Zinga, about 70 km downstream from Bangui of 920 m3 / s;</li>
<li>Storage volume of 2,370 million m3;</li>
<li>Power generation of 30 MW;</li>
<li>Number of groups of 4 bulbs (unit flow: 94 m3 / s).</li>
</ul>

<p>The C-O MISOA was initiated in late 2014 with support from the World Bank-managed multi-donor transboundary river basin development facility, the&Acirc; Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA). CIWA facilitated a consultative approach to develop the tools needed to identify sustainable regional investment opportunities in the Cubango-Okavango basin, an area of global environmental significance threatened by deep, persistent poverty within the three strong middle-income member countries;&Acirc; Angola, Namibia and Botswana.</p>
<p>&Acirc; </p>

<p>The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) underlies the countries of Chad, Egypt, Libya&Acirc; and Sudan, the total population of which is over 136 million. It is the world&acirc;&euro;&trade;s largest &acirc;&euro;&tilde;fossil&acirc;&euro;&trade; water aquifer system.</p>
<p>The project scope involves:</p>
<ul>
<li>Developing a standard mechanism for monitoring the development of the aquifer</li>
<li>Capacity building/ training for field investigations/monitoring of groundwater in four countries</li>
<li>Creating a legislative framework for attaining principles of cooperation and equitable utilization</li>
<li>Developing framework for the implementation of the regional strategy for utilization of the NSAS</li>
</ul>
<p>&Acirc; </p>
<p>The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) underlies the countries of Chad, Egypt, Libya and Sudan, the total population of which is over 136 million. It is the world's largest &lsquo;fossil' water aquifer system stretching over approximately 2.6 million square km in Northeast Africa. Fresh groundwater reserves in the aquifer system is estimated at 372,950 billion cubic metre (BCM), out of which only 3.9% is recoverable with present?day technology. The riparian countries sharing the aquifer system face similar problems of arid climate, scarce surface water resources, persistent droughts and fragile ecosystems. The aquifer is a critically important source of water in this arid desert region and will be increasingly in demand in the future. Hence, all four countries have given priority to linking the NSAS groundwater exploitation to national development strategies and plans. Growing pressures on the aquifer system pose threats to both the quantity and quality of the resource and could, if not appropriately managed, lead to transboundary/shared problems and tension.</p>
<p> </p>

<p>The project, located in Guinea, aims to regulate the Senegal River in four countries via a multipurpose dam.</p>

<p>The NWAS is one of the major North African transboundary groundwater basins shared by three North African countries (i.e.  i.e. Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia) which covers an area of more than one million square kilometres. The NWSAS can be categorised as a multi-layered system of aquifers which embodies a huge stock of non-renewable groundwater. </p>

<p>The project involves the construction of the Koukoutamba multi-purpose dam (previously known as Gourbassy dam) between Mali and Senegal.</p>

<p>A feasibility study and preliminary design for the Gourbassy Dam was completed by SNC LAVALIN International in 2012 for the OMVS Secretariat (Haut Commissariat de l"’OMVS), with funding from the World Bank under the project PGIRE 1. The main summary report is dated July 2012.</p>

<p>Since then, some (rather modest) progress has been made on further project preparation and mobilisation of finance. Activities that have been undertaken include: preparation of terms of reference for detailed design studies and tender documents. The preparation of studies to assess the cost of building the dam; and development of plans to mobilise finance, including planning for a donor round table and sending out funding requests to potential partners has been done.</p>

<p>The IAS faces multiple constraints; in particular difficulties of access to water resources related to the excessive depth (over 600 m) in some regions. Moreover, the lack of sub-regional strategic water resources management has led to changes in aquifer hydro-dynamics and water quality degradation. It constitutes the main perennial resource of potable water and a strategic resource for the sustainable development of the concerned countries. </p>

<p>Construction of a dam and hydroelectric plant of 90 MW on the Niandan River in Guinea with a reservoir of about 5 billion m3 of water.</p>

<p>The project has two components, namely:<br />
- Strengthen the institutional and financial capacity of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) to sustainably fulfill its basic mandate; and<br />
- Facilitate evidence-based decision-making in the process of preparing Fomi&#39;s multipurpose dams and in parallel strengthening of ABN&#39;s capabilities through its direct involvement in this complex project.</p>

<p>The Fomi Dam initiative has been continued in two related projects:<br />
First, an APL-1 project on water resources development and sustainable ecosystem management (WRD SEM) funded by the World Bank (P093806) and secondly, the Niger River Basin Management Project. It is unclear if the APL-1 project is still active through a follow-up phase which might likely be named APL-2.<br />
The Niger River Basin Management Project was approved for CIWA funding in November 2014 and aims to strengthen the NBA&#39;s capacity to prepare for Fomi in two phases, namely:<br />
a) facilitate dialogue between stakeholders in Guinea, Mali and the NBA to develop a roadmap on how to proceed with the preparation of the Fomi dam project; and<br />
b) Complementary studies to the main preparatory studies supported by WRD SEM (APL-1).</p>