Lake Manantali is a large artificial
lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
, formed by the 1989 construction of the
Manantali Dam, on the
Bafing River
The Bafing River (Manding languages, Manding for "black river", French language, French: ''Rivière Bafing'') is the upper course and largest tributary of the Senegal River which runs through Guinea and Mali and is about long.
Course
The Font ...
in
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
. Its northern point is located 90 km to the south-east of the city of
Bafoulabé.
Size
Lake Manantali covers 477 km
2 and contains 11.3 billion m
3 of water. Its formation forced 12,000 people from their homes and flooded 120 km
2 of forest. The lake largely ended the flood patterns on both the Bafing and
Senegal River
The Senegal River ( or "Senegal" - compound of the Serer term "Seen" or "Sene" or "Sen" (from Roog Seen, Supreme Deity in Serer religion) and "O Gal" (meaning "body of water")); , , , ) is a river in West Africa; much of its length mark ...
s, compromising traditional agriculture which depended upon seasonal flooding. The lake has created benefits as well: consistent navigation downstream of the dam, irrigation of surrounding land, and a source for commercial fishing. The dam itself provides hydroelectric power through much of the region.
Peter Bosshard. A Case Study on the Manantali Dam Project (Mali, Mauritania, Senegal)
Erklärung von Bern/internationalrivers. March 1, 1999
References
*Knaap, M. van der. Status of fish stocks and fisheries of thirteen medium-sized African reservoirs. CIFA Technical Paper. No. 26. Rome, FAO. 1994. 107p.
*{{cite book, title=Dams and Disease: Ecological Design and Health Impacts of Large Dams, Canals, and Irrigation Systems , author=William R. Jobin, year= 1999, publisher=Taylor & Francis, isbn=0419223606 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NH6WcjShY2oC&q=%22Bakoy+River%22&pg=PA239
External links
Satellite view of the Bafing River valley before and after the formation of Lake Manantali
Manantali