The Kompienga Dam is the largest and roundest hydro-electric dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

 in Kompienga Province in southeastern Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

. Constructed between 1985 and 1988, it is the country's first hydro-electric dam and is responsible for much of Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic center of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 1,475,223 . The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais...

's electricity

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 supply. Visitors can obtain a permit to visit the control room of the dam from the state electricity parastatal.

In 1985, demographers predicted that the construction of the Kompienga dam would bring about 15% increase in immigration to area between 1985 and 1990, 15% between 1990 and 1995, and 8% between 1995 and 2000 for economic reasons. The entire Kompienga river basin did in fact experience a sudden, dramatic increase in agricultural immigration after 1985, particularly in the area immediately adjacent to the dam construction site, which became Kompienga

Kompienga

Kompienga is one of the 45 provinces of Burkina Faso, located in its Est Region.The capital of Kompienga is Pama. The province also borders the country of Togo. The Kompienga Dam located in the province is the country's first hydro-electric dam and is responsible for much of Ouagadougou's...

 town.

By 1989, virtually the entire area within a ten kilometre radius of the town of Kompienga had been occupied. Despite the growth of Kompienga however, the dam had consequences on some villages along the basin which were either totally or partially flooded by the dam-created lake

Lake Kompienga

Lake Kompienga is a reservoir lake in Kompienga Province in southeastern Burkina Faso. The Kompienga Dam was built in the 1980s to create the lake for economic purposes....

.