This project will focus on the downstream area commanded by the Bagré dam located on the White Volta (Nakambé) river. The Bagré dam is the biggest multi-purpose water infrastructure in Burkina Faso. As such, it is crucial for food production, hydropower generation, and the regulation of water flows (notably the limitation of floods that can have dramatic impacts, including in north-east Ghana). The Bagré dam is the center point of the World Bank supported Bagré Growth Pole Project that aims at an integrated development of 4 Burkinabe provinces, notably through land allocation to agricultural investors. The area will witness dramatic changes in the near future and it is crucial that planned investments bear fruits for all sections of society in an environmentally sustainable way.
© J.P. Venot
©Photo : J.P. Venot
Through in-depth research on the dynamics at play around the Bagré dam, the project will provide knowledge and generic tools for a more equitable and environmentally friendly governance of large water infrastructures in West Africa. The project will discuss dam operation and management scenarios and their differential impacts on food security, the provision of environmental services and the distribution of the costs and benefits of planned investments. It would do so through a multi-level participatory approach, called Companion Modeling, based on the co-building of participatory tools such as Role Playing Games to discuss management options –and their impacts- that would have been identified by project’s stakeholders themselves.
Thématique / Domaine : Gouvernance de l’irrigation, approches participatives
