Maga Dam is a dam located south of

Lake Chad Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...

near the border of

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

and

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

History

It was constructed in 1979. In 1994 a pilot program was started to drain some water back into the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

. The outcome of the dam diverting vast amounts of water has negatively impacted communities downstream. Maga Dam is the subject of ongoing environmental studies which implicate the diversion of water, which served as natural inflow to downstream regions, as the primary cause of Lake Chad shrinkage.

External links

Safety Assessment of Maga Dam, Cameroon

www.iwlearn.net

On Google Maps
Dams in Cameroon Geography of Cameroon Dams completed in 1979 {{Africa-dam-stub