La Gogue dam in Seychelles reopens

The La Gogue dam in the Seychelles has reopened after undergoing rehabilitation. The dam, which had been in service for 39 years from 1979 to 2018, required renovation to meet the increasing demand for drinking water in the Seychelles archipelago.

The project was managed by the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) and financed by a loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB). The rehabilitation work involved raising the dam’s reservoir by 6 meters. To achieve this, an artificial waterproofing system was used, which consisted of a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane anchored in a trench dug within the existing core.

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La Gogue dam

Additionally, the project included work on the southern saddle dam and piling work on the right abutment of the dam to address seepage issues in the main dam structure. As a result of the rehabilitation, the La Gogue dam’s height has increased to 35 meters from the previous 29 meters, and its storage capacity has expanded by 60%, reaching 1.6 million cubic meters (m3) compared to the original 600,000 m3. The water stored in the reservoir will be treated before being distributed to households.

The PUC plans to build a drinking water plant downstream of the reservoir. Once operational, the plant is expected to have a production capacity of 4,400 m3 of drinking water per day. This water will primarily serve Mahé, the largest island in the Seychelles archipelago.

The rehabilitation project had a total cost of US $20M. The Seychelles government financed the project through a loan obtained from the African Development Bank. The completion of the project is expected to increase the number of Seychellois with access to a basic source of drinking water, benefiting thousands of people in the country.

By 2019, the rate of access to a basic source of drinking water in the Seychelles had already reached 97%, according to the World Bank. The rehabilitation of the La Gogue dam and the establishment of the drinking water plant aim to further improve this access and cater to the growing water needs of the population.