Sankarani River

{{Designation list

| designation1 = Ramsar

| designation1_offname = Sankarani-Fié

| designation1_date = 17 January 2002

| designation1_number = 1167{{Cite web|title=Sankarani-Fié|website=Ramsar Sites Information Service|url=https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1167|access-date=25 April 2018}}}}

File:Upper Niger Guinea OSM klein.png

File:Sankarani river map.png

The Sankarani River (French: Fleuve Sankarani) is a tributary of the Niger River.{{cite book |last1=Andersen |first1=Inger |last2=Golitzen |first2=Katherin George |title=The Niger River Basin: A Vision for Sustainable Management |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DQj7Zpv-IwkC |access-date=25 November 2016 |date=1 January 2005 |publisher=World Bank Publications |isbn=9780821362044 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DQj7Zpv-IwkC/page/n30 13], 33–34}} Flowing northward from the Guinea Highlands of the Fouta Djallon in Guinea,{{Cite web|title=Sankarani River {{!}} river, western Africa|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Sankarani-River|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-05-17}}{{Cite book|last=Hughes|first=R. H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VLjafeXa3gMC&q=sankarani+river+from+north+to+south+guinea&pg=PA374|title=A Directory of African Wetlands|date=1992|publisher=IUCN|isbn=978-2-88032-949-5|language=en}} it crosses into southern Mali, where it joins the Niger approximately {{convert|40|km}} upstream of Bamako, the capital of Mali. It forms part of the Ivory Coast-Guinea and Guinea–Mali borders.{{cite book |last=Hughes |first=R. H. |title=A Directory of African Wetlands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VLjafeXa3gMC&pg=PA376 |access-date=25 November 2016 |year=1992 |publisher=IUCN |isbn=9782880329495 |pages=374, 376}}

The Sankarani River watershed, traditionally well suited to crops and rich in iron and gold, covers some {{convert|35500|km2}}, two-thirds of which are in Guinea, where it is joined by three tributaries: the Kourai, Yeremou and Dion Rivers. In Mali, it flows into the Niger River upstream of Bamako near the village of Kourouba.{{cite web |url=http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Environmental-and-Social-Assessments/ADF-BD-IF-2008-181-EN-MALI-IRRIGATION-DEVELOPMENT-PROGRAMME-PHASE-I-ESIAS.PDF |title=Irrigation Development Programme - Phase I |publisher=African Development Bank Group}}

Construction of the Sélingué Dam began in 1980, with the goal of supplying Bamako with electricity;{{cite web |url=http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Evaluation-Reports-_Shared-With-OPEV_/06004242-EN-MALI-SELINGUE-DAM.PDF |title=Mali: Selingue Dam Project: Project Performance Evaluation Report (PPER) |author=B. Askofare |date=6 June 1988 |publisher=African Development Bank Group}}{{cite book |last1=Koenig |first1=Dolores |last2=Diarra |first2=Tiéman |last3=Sow |first3=Moussa |title=Innovation and Individuality in African Development: Changing Production Strategies in Rural Mali |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=728lx7XRofcC&pg=PA119 |year=1998 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=9780472108947 |pages=119–123}} it was inaugurated on 13 December 1982.{{cite book|last1=Imperato|first1=Pascal James|last2=Imperato|first2=Gavin H.|title=Historical Dictionary of Mali|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zf6xAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA71|access-date=25 November 2016|date=25 April 2008|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810864023|pages=xl, 105}} It and the accompanying hydroelectric plant comprised the largest development project in Malian history up to that time. The plant has the capacity to produce 44.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. An irrigation scheme was also implemented, initially to compensate people who had to be moved; it covered {{convert|1200|ha}}, split up among 1943 plot holders,{{cite web |url=http://www.gwiwestafrica.org/en/countries/mali |title=Mali: Water for agriculture (2013-17) |publisher=International Institute for Environment and Development}} or {{convert|60000|ha}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/W4347E/w4347e0i.htm |title=The Niger River basin |author= Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations}}

The Sankanarni has a discontinuous floodplain over a distance of {{convert|170|km}} in Guinea. The river banks support gallery forests, though the Selingue Dam's reservoir covered many of them. As of 2008, more than a thousand fishermen caught "between 400 and 1000 kg/day in peak season and 10 to 50 kg/day in low season (March to May)" in the section of the river between the dam and the junction with the Niger.{{citation | editor-last=Golitzen | editor-first=Katherin George| year=2005 |title=The Niger River Basin: A Vision for Sustainable Management | publisher=World Bank | place=Washington, DC. |url=http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWAT/Resources/4602114-1206643460526/Niger_River_Basin_Vision_Sustainable_Management.pdf | isbn=0-8213-6203-8 }}

At the height of its power, from the 13th to 16th centuries CE, the capital of the ancient Mali Empire is believed to have been at Niani, on the banks of the Sankarani.{{cite book |last1=Fage |first1=J. D. |last2=Oliver|first2=Roland |title=The Cambridge History of Africa|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory03fage |url-access=registration |access-date=25 November 2016 |year=1975 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521209816 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory03fage/page/378 378]}}