"Is China edging away from a massive dam on the River Niger?", 7 April 2021

[...] The government of Guinea announced more than three years ago that the Fomi dam project was ready for construction to begin in the river’s headwaters, thanks to Chinese money and expertise. But since then, ground operations have ceased and there has been political silence. Activists who have followed the project say that ecological concerns may be staying the hand of the Chinese engineers and financiers. [...] By hobbling the livelihoods of some two million farmers, fishers and herders on the delta, the abstraction of water for the irrigation project would also empty more mouths than it feeds. [...]

[...] It was no surprise when the Yellow River Engineering Consulting (YREC) emerged as the engineer of choice for the Fomi project, with proposed funding from the China Exim Bank.

In 2017, following completion of a feasibility study by the YREC, the government of President Alpha Conde announced that a deal to build the dam had been struck. Construction, it was reported, could begin by the end of 2017. But since then there has been silence.

“We hear from our contacts in Guinea that Fomi is on hold,” says Josh Klemm of International Rivers, who has followed the saga. “No financing has been secured.” The China Exim Bank, which has funded the country’s other dams in Guinea, appears to have got cold feet.

Klemm speculates that there could be growing concern at the bank about environmental push-back over the project. “The bank isn’t immune from controversy,” he says. “It has reportedly reconsidered financing of the Koukoutamba dam after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and others highlighted impacts on critically endangered chimpanzees. My sense is that Fomi is not of sufficient strategic interest for China to invite controversy.” [...]