Markala is a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
's
Ségou Region
Ségou Region ( Bambara: ߛߋߓߎ ߘߌߣߋߖߊ tr. Segu Dineja) is an administrative region in Mali, situated in the centre of the country with an area of , around 5% of Mali. The region is bordered by Sikasso Region on the south, Tombouctou an ...
on the
Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...
35 km down stream from the town of
Ségou
Ségou (; bm, ߛߋߓߎ, italic=no, ) is a town and an urban commune in south-central Mali that lies northeast of Bamako on the right bank of the River Niger. The town is the capital of the Ségou Cercle and the Ségou Region. With 130,690 i ...
. The commune contains 30 villages in an area of 318 square kilometers and in 2009 had a population of 45,961.
[.] Mali's primary irrigation dam, the Markala dam, lies in the commune. The main village of the commune, Diamarabougou, is on the right bank adjacent to the dam which also serves as an important road bridge.
The French colonial authorities constructed the dam between 1934 and 1945 to irrigate farmland with the intention of producing cotton for the textile industry. The dam is 2450 m in length and functions as a weir in that water can flow over the top. It diverts water into a canal system that extends 135 km to the north past the small towns of Niono
Niono is a town and commune located in the Ségou Region of Mali. The commune has an area of approximately 491 square kilometers and includes the town and 20 of the surrounding villages. In the 2009 census it had a population of 91,554. The town ...
and Sokolo
Sokolo is a small town and rural commune in the Cercle of Niona in the Ségou Region of southern-central Mali. The commune has an area of approximately 2,219 square kilometers and includes the town and 17 villages. In the 2009 census the popula ...
in the 'Delta Mort' region. Each year around 2.7 km3 of water is diverted from the river, which corresponds to 8.3 percent of the total flow. The water is used to irrigate about 750 square kilometers (75,000 ha) of farmland. The scheme is managed by the Office du Niger
The Office du Niger is a semi-autonomous government agency in Mali that administers a large irrigation scheme in the Ségou Region of the country. Water from the Niger River is diverted into a system of canals at the Markala dam downstream of Sé ...
and in 1999/2000 produced 320,000 tons of rice, representing 40 percent of the total Malian production.
Although the dam itself lies in the centre of the Markala commune, the farmland irrigated by the dam lies outside the commune to the north.
Until around 2008, the town was served by Markala Airport.
Notes
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{{Authority control
Communities on the Niger River
Communes of Ségou Region