Supervision of Souapiti ESMP & RAP

The Challenge

The Souapiti project is a 450 MW hydropower dam on the Konkouré River in Guinea, featuring a 116‑meter‑high dam and a 260km² reservoir. As one of the country’s flagship energy projects, it plays a critical role in securing electricity supply while requiring careful management of environmental and social impacts due to its scale.

The Solution

The client needed to ensure full compliance with international environmental and social standards while minimizing displacement and environmental impacts, without compromising energy production. Managing large‑scale resettlement, supervising contractors’ HSE performance, and safeguarding biodiversity were critical to securing social acceptance and project viability.

The Impact

Alongside the large technical scope covered, Tractebel delivered the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP), and the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP), and supervised their implementation. By optimizing dam design, and in particular lowering the dam height by 20m, Tractebel reduced the number of Project Affected People from 48,000 to approximately 16,000 while preserving power generation capacity. Tractebel also supervised contractor HSE performance, assisted the Owner’s Engineer on E&S plans, and conducted baseline environmental and ecological diagnostics to ensure long‑term sustainability.