Rehabilitation of nine large water reservoirs in Burkina Faso

A consortium led by Witteveen+Bos has been awarded the project to rehabilitate nine large water reservoirs in Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso is a relatively flat country and hundreds of reservoirs have been built to store water for the purpose of drinking water, agriculture, industrial activities and fishing. Siltation, aggravated by land erosion, climate change and an increase in water demand is putting the water availability at risk for millions of people. Also, the dams need to be renovated due to a lack of maintenance.

The program Develop to Build (D2B), executed by Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO) Department of International Development, aims at rehabilitating nine reservoirs and their catchment in the jurisdictional areas of the Nakambé and Gourma water authorities. The consortium will develop sustainable reservoir rehabilitation plans including land and sediment management measures, that will protect the water resources now and in the future and generate income for the local communities.

The project consists of three phases. In the first phase of the project, the current situation in terms of biophysical, social and institutional aspects will be established. In this phase rehabilitation scenarios will be developed together with the local stakeholders which will include sediment management strategies, dam strengthening and dredging to protect and secure the scarce water resources. In the second phase the developed solutions will be further refined into detailed designs together with the environmental and social impact assessment. The tender documentation for the rehabilitation works will be prepared in phase three. The project duration is two years and is funded by the RVO.

Witteveen+Bos is the lead partner of the consortium also consisting of BERA (Burkinabé), Deltares, Netics and Bureau M2.

^{Picture: Margo Meeuwissen (Bureau M2)}