The Kandadji dam, the evil eye and a whiff of scandal

Will the hydro-electric dam due to built in the Kandadji region on the River Niger in south western Niger ever see the light of day? Construction of the dam, which was supposed to increase the country's energy production and advance the fight against malnutrition, had been due to get under way in 2011 but work has still not begun. It is not now expected to start, moreover, until 2021 at the earliest. The main cause of delay has been the lack of transparency surrounding the project. This served to justify its unilateral withdrawal by President Mahamadou Issoufou's for failure to respect contractual specifications after it had been attributed by his predecessor, Salou Djibo, to Russia's Zarubezhvodstroy (ZVS). The Issoufou administration has been very conciliatory towards the former junta chief, who was in power in 2010 and 2011, and has not been zealous to the point of seeking to cast light on the shady aspects surrounding this $127 million contract. It preferred rather to bury the investigation into the conditions in which it was attributed.

With a new executor still to be designated, other issues, including uncompleted studies and financing problems, are adding further complications, as this joint special report by West Africa Newsletter and Africa Energy Intelligence demonstrates. A new environmental impact study, which had not originally been planned, now obliges Niger to seek the approval of neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali before starting any work.

The only infrastructure of its type in Niger, the 130 MW barrage was to be the emblematic project of Mahamadou Issoufou's first 2011-2016 five-year term with its "3Ns" programme – "Nigeriens Nourish Nigeriens". It looks very unlikely, however, that Issoufou, who was re-elected for a second term in March, will ever officially inaugurate it…