WCD Thematic Review I.1:Contributing Paper-- Social Impacts of an African Dam: Equity and Distributional Issues in the Senegal River Valley

The story of Manantali Dam begins fifteen years before the dam itself became operational. The story to be told here is that of the social impacts of the Senegal River Development Organisation (OMVS) programme that led to the construction of Manantali (and its sister dam Diama), and of the irrigation schemes it inspired. It is told in order to review the social impacts of Manantali and recognize the key equity issues they raise, in the hope of learning from the way those issues were handled in the case of this one African dam, something of how they might be resolved throughout Africa today. [Working Paper prepared for the World Commission on Dams