The Water Resources Coordination Center (WRCC) of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) has recently introduced a dialogue on large hydraulic infrastructures in West Africa.

The aim of the Dialogue on dams in West Africa is to provide recommendations that will promote cooperation in the region and ensure integrated, sustainable and peaceful management of water resources. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a partner of this dialogue and has set as its objective to enable the contribution of as many actors as possible in the dialogue, and the civil society in particular.

In the framework of this project, an electronic forum has been proposed by IUCN from October 19^th to November 15^th, 2009. The synthesis and conclusions of this forum are available on the website www.dialoguebarrages.org. Your are invted to spread these documents as widely as possible to inform an as large as possible number of people concerned by large dams.

From now, the dialogue moves on to the next step. IUCN plans workshops for discussion at the end of trimester (the dates are not set for the moment) in the region. The objective of these workshops is to bring together civil society organizations (NGsO, water user associations), local elected officials, Members of Parliaments, etc. to prepare civil society in the various countries to contribute constructively to the debate on large hydraulic infrastructures and provide recommendations for ECOWAS. The discussion will be based on the synthesis and conclusions of the electronic forum and on case studies.

Please, confirm your interest, if it is not done already, to follow or alternatively to take part in this regional dialogue by sending an email to Jérôme Koundono, Dialogue régional su les grandes infrastructures hydrauliques dans l'espace CEDEAO, UICN - Union Internationale pour la Conservation de la Nature at: dialogueondams.westafrica@iucn.org