Large Water Transfer (GTE): work to secure Lake Guiers begins by the end of 2026

The Large Water Transfer (GTE) program will continue and work to secure Lake Guiers will begin by the end of 2026. The assurance was given on Monday by the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation through a press release.

The Large Water Transfer (GTE) program is neither canceled nor suspended. It is continuing in accordance with the planned plan, according to the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation, and will take a concrete step before the end of this year with the launch of the first works on the ground.

In a press release published on Monday August 26, 2026, the supervisory authority emphasizes that there is a budgetary programming “better aligned” with the actual schedule of the project. On this, she specifies that the readjustments made within the framework of the LFR 2026, and which will be extended in the Initial Finance Law (LFI) 2027, “in no way reflect a renunciation”.

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“They are a matter of rigorous management of public finances, which consists of registering credits at the time when they can actually be committed and disbursed. A program of this scale indeed follows a sequence of stages that must be carried out with care,” the document specifies.

These stages mainly include the finalization of studies, the various selection, negotiation and contractualization procedures, the inventory and compensation of people affected by the project, as well as the management of interfaces between its different components.

The GTE, a strategic priority of the State

“The budgetary programming was simply adjusted to this implementation schedule, so that each resource mobilized was at the right time. The GTE remains a strategic priority of the State. Efforts to mobilize funding from donors and private investors are continuing in parallel with review and validation procedures, with the aim of starting work on the main transfer in 2027,” says the ministry of Cheikh Tidiane Dieye.

Regarding Lake Guiers, the text indicates that work to secure the resource will be launched by the end of 2026.

“In accordance with the commitments of the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, the work on the upstream phase of the GTE will actually be launched by the end of 2026. They aim to secure Lake Guiers, the main source of supply for the program,” indicates the press release.

Improving the hydraulicity of Lake Guiers

This work relates in particular to the rehabilitation of the Richard Toll regulation structure, which controls the supply of the lake from the Senegal River via the Taouey canal. But also, the embankment works (at the level of the CSS, Pakh and Bontou Bath), intended to improve the hydraulicity of the lake and strengthen its storage capacity.

They are financed by the World Bank. They will guarantee, over time, the availability and quality of the water resource on which the GTE, but also agriculture and the populations of the valley, depend.

For the Touba component, SONES completed, according to the ministry, the feasibility studies, obtained the no-objection notice from the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning (MEFP), initiated the examination of the file with the Central Directorate of Public Procurement (DCMP) and submitted the final report of the Environmental and Social Impact Study (ESIA).

The site of the treatment plant and the locations of the water towers are identified and secured in the holy city of Touba. In relation to the “Water supply to the localities crossed” component, the APS studies have been finalized and target 57 municipalities located along the route in the two regions of Louga and Thiès.

Mariama DIEME