The Global Initiative to Reoperate Dams is implementing demonstration projects in West Africa. This collaboration involves national water resource agencies, national institutes and universities, river basin officials, domestic and international NGOs, and local communities in the affected watersheds.
Ghana - Lower Volta Basin
The construction of Akosombo Dam in 1965 created the largest man-made reservoir in the world, resulting in devastating impacts to the livelihoods of the downstream communities and the ecosystem processes on which they depend. The Global Initiative is working to restore these livelihoods and ecosystems downstream of Akosombo and the nearby Kpong dam by restoring a more natural flow pattern on the Volta River.
More than 10 million humans' subsistence and livelihoods are dependent on the environmental services provided within the Hadejia-Nguru basin, yet a series of problems plague the basin, in part due to the effects the Tiga and Challawa dams, which control 80% of the flows into the wetlands. The Global Initiative is working to restore the natural variability in flows that occurred before these dams were built, in order to improve the health of the aquatic ecosystems and the people whose lives depend on it.
Other Africa Components
The Global Initiative is developing reoperation projects around the African continent, including the Senegal River Basin and a potential West Africa-wide component. The reoperation techniques that will be explored include economic optimization modeling, conjunctive management of surface and groundwater, reducing physical losses of water in irrigation, and rescheduling (while increasing) total hydropower production and system reliability.
Contact: Gregory Thomas
Project Websites:
Learn more about the West Africa component and related efforts at these websites:
www.global-dam-re-operation.org
Komadugu-Yobe Basin Project
