Lake Kossou

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The Kossoustausee ( French " Lac de Kossou " ) is the largest lake in Côte d' Ivoire ( Ivory Coast). It is located in the center of the country at the White Bandama. The dam was built in 1973 Kossou north of Yamoussoukro.

As a shut-off is a dam of rockfill material. He is up to 58 m high, 1500 m long and has a building volume of 5.2 million m³. Dammed the White and the Red Bandama, which unite in the reservoir to Bandama. The reservoir is one of the largest in the world. The lake is more than three times the size of Lake Geneva, but he was only in 1979 that fully impounded because the rains were too small before. Therefore, at first could not be achieved with the full power of electricity.

The Kossoustausee is the third of five reservoirs in the Ivory Coast. Were built in this order:

• I Ayamé 1962
• Ayamé II 1965
• Koussou in 1973 with 176 MW
• Koussou II ( Taabo ) 1979 with 210 MW
• Buyo in 1980 with 165 MW

Together they have an electrical output of 600 MW.

The Kossou project was the most expensive hydropower plant in the Ivory Coast by far. For the reservoir had about 85,000 inhabitants, the Baule, to be resettled.