All the infrastructure work on La Gogue dam in Seychelles is expected to be completed in November, before it becomes fully operational in the first quarter of 2023.

A delegation, which included President Wavel Ramkalawan and the environment minister, Flavien Joubert, visited the facility on Tuesday.

Erna Victor, the project coordinator at the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) told reporters that "at the moment, we only have works on paving the main road and the installation of measuring instruments for the saddle dams left, before work to fill up the dam can begin."

In December, the dam will start to gradually fill up.

"The reason we have to fill the dam gradually is so that we can monitor for any issues that need to be dealt with and fix them before the dam can become operational once again," said Victor.

Seychelles is now currently entering its rainy season and with rainfall being scarce over the past weeks, PUC is hoping for an increase in rainfall in order to have the dam full in time to distribute for public consumption.

A delegation, which included President Wavel Ramkalawan and the environment minister, Flavien Joubert, visited the facility on Tuesday. (Sedrick Nicette, Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY

Work on the dam began in 2018 and was originally due to be completed in 2019, but faced numerous delays, such as a strike by local truck operators and, of course, the effect of the global pandemic.

The original dam was built in 1976 and had a capacity of 1 million cubic metres and with the current work, its capacity will increase to 1.6 million cubic metres at a cost of $23.5 million (SCR 307 million),  which is being financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) through a loan agreement signed in April 2015.

Once the dam becomes operational, work will shift to the second component of the project, which is the construction of a new water treatment plant with a capacity to treat 4,400 cubic metres of water per day.

It will be the fourth treatment plant after Hermitage, Le Niole and Cascade, which distribute potable water on Mahe.