Koukoutamba (ex-Gourbassy) Multi-purpose Dam is a water and energy infrastructure project serving Mali and Senegal. It is intended to provide hydropower, water storage or river regulation through a dam, reservoir and associated generation or water-management infrastructure. The Koukoutamba hydropower project remained in preparation, with OMVS carrying out consultations with affected communities in 2025. At 31 December 2025, the project was assessed at Project Structuring.
<p>The project involves the construction of the Koukoutamba multi-purpose dam (previously known as Gourbassy dam) between Mali and Senegal.</p>
<p>A feasibility study and preliminary design for the Gourbassy Dam was completed by SNC LAVALIN International in 2012 for the OMVS Secretariat (Haut Commissariat de l"’OMVS), with funding from the World Bank under the project PGIRE 1. The main summary report is dated July 2012.</p>
<p>Since then, some (rather modest) progress has been made on further project preparation and mobilisation of finance. Activities that have been undertaken include: preparation of terms of reference for detailed design studies and tender documents. The preparation of studies to assess the cost of building the dam; and development of plans to mobilise finance, including planning for a donor round table and sending out funding requests to potential partners has been done.</p>
<p>The objective is to stabilise the flow of the Senegal River to allow irrigated agriculture, river traffic and an increase in hydroelectric power.</p>