It is the fourth project of the Senegal River Basin Development Authority and its ground-breaking ceremony on 17 December 2013 was attended by the heads of state of each member country.

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz laid the foundation stone.

Preliminary construction had been suspended due to the 2012 Malian coup d'état and subsequent Northern Mali conflict.

[3] The project received 85 percent of its funding from the Exim Bank of China along with US$1 million from the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund and US$1.4 million from the International Development Association and European Investment Bank.

[4] It has an installed capacity of 140 megawatts (190,000 hp) and will use the outflows of the Manantali Dam upstream to regulation water flow into the plant.