Gathered at a citizens' forum in Jacqueville, the women of Taboth village sounded the alarm. The construction of the Atinkou thermal power plant is paralyzing their economic activities and worsening their living conditions. Faced with this situation, they are demanding the immediate fulfillment of the socio-economic commitments made at the project's launch.

The attiéké economy has come to a complete standstill.

For many women in Taboth, daily life has become a financial struggle. Hélène Tété, president of a local group, says she hasn't been able to produce attiéké for five months. The reason: the state of the production site since the start of the renovations.

1. Unusable infrastructure: The yard housing the machines is systematically submerged in mud during the rainy season.
2. Health risks: The surrounding dust and mud make any production impossible without risking food contamination.

“We haven’t been working for five months. (...) We feel that this power plant was installed to harm us rather than to improve our daily lives,” laments the president of the Taboth Women’s Association.

A mega energy project facing unfulfilled promises

Developed by Atinkou SA (a subsidiary of the Eranove group) and partly financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the 390 MW combined cycle power plant represents an investment of €404 million (over 260 billion CFA francs). While it is expected to supply electricity to more than one million Ivorian households, local benefits have yet to materialize.

The Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program did, however, provide for clear compensation:

1. Compensation for the affected populations.
2. Prioritizing the recruitment of local workers.
3. Major investments in health, education and road infrastructure.

The reality on the ground, as denounced by the residents:

1. Deficient road network: Access roads are flooded at the slightest rain, blocking the movement of goods.
2. Precarious health system: The local hospital has no fence and suffers from recurring power cuts, plunging patients into darkness.

Social dialogue to correct the situation

In response to this crisis, the Ivorian Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (CIDDH) and the NGO Synergie pour le Développement (SynDev) organized a forum for discussion. This forum is part of the project "Amplifying the voices of women affected by AfDB-funded projects in West Africa" .

Marthe Coulibaly, national coordinator of the CIDDH, reaffirmed her commitment to bringing these demands to the attention of the authorities and donors in order to finalize the promised infrastructure.

Present at the meeting, Gervais Ouattara, Secretary General of the Jacqueville Prefecture, recalled a fundamental principle:

"Sustainable development can only be fully successful when it is built with the people and not just for the people."

The forum concluded with the drafting of an official memorandum . This document will serve as a basis for negotiations between local communities, the State, the AfDB, and the developer Eranove to minimize environmental impacts (particularly water discharges into the lagoon and atmospheric emissions) and repair the social fabric.